


The World of Mages.

by QueenStiles



Category: Fairy Tail, Original Work, RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, Grimm - Freeform, M/M, Mages, Magical World, Multi, Original work - Freeform, faunus, mainly rwby and fairy tail, monsters in general - Freeform, various references to a bunch of stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 15:41:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 30,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4485199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenStiles/pseuds/QueenStiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The little trio had a way of working whenever they went on missions but that was completely thrown off when the master of their guild forces them to allow a new guild member to join their team. During their simple mission, they find something that they think of as suspicious and it only grows when they find out that the Magic Council knew and didn't do anything. Which made them open up a huge can of worms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! They are clearly hiding here!” The oldest of the ‘search’ party exclaimed. They were stuck searching for the same two that always went missing and, to be honest, she didn’t know why they kept looking for them.

    Her companion gave her an annoyed look. Why were they in charge of looking for the little punks that seemed to be unable of staying in one place and not giving the guild a heart attack?! They got themselves lost so they should be able to find their own way back as punishment. But no! The guild master had to send out search parties for them.

    “Cato should know better,” Mako exclaimed once the master had told them the plan.

    “Yes, Cato should. But we all know how Stiles can get,” the aged man sighed and rubbed his forehead.

    No one could really understand how a quest and reserved girl could get her and her friend in so much trouble. Not to mention in such a short period of time. Sometimes the rumor that she came from a long line of tricksters sparked up again but it was dismissed after a few days. The young mage was too quiet and sweet to be a trickster. 

    “He should learn to say no,” Lucky piped up from his spot at the end of the table. Someone sitting with him snorted in amusement and glanced over at the group as they continued to think of places they could look for the two. 

    “We all know that he does say no, it’s just a matter of if she listens to him or not.”

    “Shut up, Erwin!” Now Gwen was getting frustrated with them and that was never a good thing. An annoyed Gwen was something that should be feared by all and always should be avoided. 

    All the men fell silent, looking down and anywhere away from the fuming blonde. Only the master of the guild, Mako, and Lucky weren’t affected by her anger. Couldn’t someone else be sent looking for the pair of idiots? Idiots didn’t do their stupidity justice- Morons didn’t do it either. Huh… Maybe they would have a contest for someone in the guild to come up with a brand new word to label the stupidity that the two had.

    “I sent other out as well.”

    “Then why do we have to go?”

    “Yeah! Why always look for them!”

    “And we’re always the ones that find them.”

The other two glared at Lucky and fell silent. He wasn’t wrong about it either! For some reason their little team was always the ones to find the two younger mages even if they found them casually walking back to the guild hall. Sometimes they wondered if other teams just stopped looking once the Master sent them out.


	2. Chapter Two.

Favorite hiding spots? The pair had many. All ranged from simple to only they could think of it because they seemed to be crazy. One hiding spot was in the forest, yes, but that was were the groups failed. They were in one of their most successful spots. It was also their favorite spot to hide in ever since the last one was compromised. The trunk.

    On the third floor of the guild hall was something like a break room or an infirmary. Somewhere where guild-mates that just got back from a mission could sit and relax or treat minor injuries. Sometimes people just went up there to have some peace or deal with something too personal to deal with while on the main floor. 

    In the room, against a wall, there was an empty trunk. This one was more of decoration than store like the others scattered throughout the guild hall. Stiles and Cato could fit in it but themselves, Cato just barely so every time they hid in the trunk, one would charm it. Make the inside bigger.

    Maybe it was just a complex illusion that they used. Either way, no one had found them yet. Though the pair had been missing all day, they had only been hiding for about three hours, only one of those hours was spent in their current spot. Just sitting there and waiting to be found or maybe scare a few of the guild members because they were horrible like that. Which is exactly what they were going to do.

    “Damn rugrat!” Mako shouted in annoyance as he stomped into the room. Out of all the people in the guild, he seemed to hate the pair the most when they go missing.

    :Now, don’t be harsh-” Lucky blinked in surprise before Gwen cut him off.

    “We wasted the entire day looking for them!”

    “Cato seriously needs to knock some sense into the rugrat,” the first male muttered.

Oh, he would pay for that. Stiles usually didn’t mind being called names that much especially when it was Mako. But something about the way he said it just made her annoyed and felt like slapping him.

    None of them seemed to notice the one trunk pushed against the wall. Even when the top cracked open so the occupants could look out and watch them. An evil glint sparkled in the eyes of the younger. She would show them for calling her a rugrat! She wasn’t that young! Before she could do anything too suddenly, a strong hand rested on her shoulder and squeezed. Cato gave the girl a stern look, clearly planning on the right moment to attack! A snort escaped the girl and both ducked out of view. The mages didn’t seem to notice the sudden noise and movements. And people call Stiles stupid… The young mage let out an annoyed huff as she watched the three unaware mages.

    “They can’t have gotten that far in a day.”

    Now Mako and Gwen were crowded together and whispering rapidly to each other. Their teammate watched them with a silent, judging look. Knowing first hand how childish the group got at times, Cato and Stiles chose then to come out and attack. They would be avenged!

    The three mages all let out startled cries when they hear the strange noise of a battle cry before two of the three were on the ground. Gwen was left standing though she had her eyes squeezed closed and looked like she was trying to curl into herself. Was that how she defended herself in battle? If it was then they hoped that she had powerful magic so she never had to go into hand to hand combat. 

    Bursting out into a fit of giggles, Stiles raised her head to grin at whichever boy she tackled. Lucky stared down at her with a gentle grin and gently rested a hand on top of the young mage’s head. Poor Cato! He got stuck with Mako who-

    “Ah!” the large male flung himself off of the older mage. Two large chunks of ice were placed on either side of his chest, resulting in a squirming and whining mess. “Get it off!”

    Despite the cries and pleads, Mako simply stood up and dusted himself off. He was pissed… Now the only female of the team was laughing hysterically as she took in the scene before her. She pointed at Cato then pointed right in Mako’s face and their reactions only seemed to make her laugh that much harder. Perhaps they shouldn’t have done that to this group of mages… Stiles knelt down to help her friend only to fall back on her butt when half the guild stormed in.

    “We heard screaming!”

    The angry mob seemed to calm at the sight of their missing members now laying on the floor. Gwen started to laugh even more at their reactions to when they saw that Cato’s chest was partly covered in ice at this point. Many annoyed faces greeted the two who simply smiled nervously and dusted themselves off. 

    “What do you think you were doing?!” The Master pushed through the group of mages with a frown tugging on his lips.

    Stiles small, amused smile instantly dropped when she saw the older man’s angered expression and she moved behind Cato. Like a small child afraid of being scolded and seeking some kind of shield which some found ironic because that is exactly what she was. A small child. And Cato easily became her shield.

    “Master,” she said and tried to be loud and confident enough.

    “We’ve been looking for you all day,” Lucky supplied quietly and the majority of the mob nodded.

    “All day! Your guild mates even went to your homes to try and find you! I almost thought-” the man stopped mid-sentence. He took a deep breath to calm himself before looking at the pair again.

    The entire guild did not need to watch him lose his temper and scold them like they were children. By the way the two looked, they were both terrified. Mako noticed the tiny movement that Cato made so he blocked Stiles a bit more. He was truly like her guard dog whether they admitted it or not. And whether she wanted it or not.  Even though she had her hand on his arm and looked like she was trying to push him away. To try and make him stop protecting her- But the older mage knew that she was truly glad that he was there and not making her the focus. 

    “Do you have any idea how worried I was?!”

The guild hall seemed to shake with the Master’s booming voice and the force of his yells. 

    “What is wrong with not being at the guild 24/7?” Cato tried to be logical.

    “But no one knew how our mission went,” the fifteen year old said softly from beside him and his head snapped towards her. 

    She looked so small now. When she first joined the guild, she was larger than most of the people around her age. Which didn’t do a whole lot for her self-esteem. Though she was a firm believer that how big or small you were shouldn’t matter but it still didn’t make her stop feeling like the ugly duckling. Proud of the way she did it, Stiles lost weight and became smaller, stronger by what she ate, training, and going on missions. She actually used all their fun and games as a way to stay healthy- So, she looked tiny now. Especially in the huge chair with her feet dangling from the ground by an inch of two. 

    “What mission?” the Master swung around to face them. All while mentally scolding himself because he didn’t remember that they had gone on a mission. 

    “The one where we went with Iroh,” the two said in unison, with the same meek tone. 

    “Iroh? Is he okay?!” Amber eyes widened as the tall man stared down at the two. 

    “He is visiting his nephew,” the said. Again they said it in perfect unison like they practiced it or something.

    Yes, that was right. Iroh’s nephew and his wife just had a child. The mage wouldn’t shut up about it. Even though he was a great uncle, he was still proud of the fact that his nephew had created such a precious little thing. That someone who used to be so rough around the edges and broken then went on to create life. 

    The senior mage was a member of the guild before anyone could remember. He was even older the the Master which threw many people off. Iroh was one of the only people in the entire guild that could freely get away with questioning or maybe even defying the master of the guild. Too much time with him and other guild member though they could do the same. 

    “Is it a boy or a girl?”

    Two pairs of eyes looked up at him in surprise. Was he really putting their scolding on hold just so they could talk about the new addition to Iroh’s family? Cato was quick to go along with it though Stiles sat there, uncertain of what to do next.

    “They had a little girl. Her name is Haruka.”

    Haruka Hamada was the apple of her parents eyes and their first born. Not only was she the apple of their eyes but Iroh’s as well. As a man that never had children, he was eager to spoil his brother’s children. Now he had another person to spoil. Until he had a mission again, Iroh was free to babysit his great niece and this included bringing her to the guild hall! Raphael wouldn’t be so happy about his uncle showing off his daughter just yet.

    “She’s so cute!” Gwen gushed as she cooed down at the tiny newborn.

    “She’s all squishy,” Mako said awkwardly, unsure of the proper way to hold a child.

    “She’s six weeks old, idiot!” 

    “So?! She’s all squishy and weird! It feels like I’m holding a bag of milk!”

    A laugh escaped the elder man’s lips as he watched the attention that she was getting from his fellow guild mates. Stiles sat next to him with a small smile as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. Iroh knew that she had a soft spot for children, she loved the majority of them. Next to the young mage was Resa, one of the girls who didn’t seem interested in Haruka.  She was one of those people who didn’t like children that much. Yet a common joke amongst the guild was how she didn’t like children yet she hung out with Stiles every day. Little did they know that the two of them were the ones that started it. 

    “Can I hold her?”

    The group looked up to see the familiar face of Cato towering over them. He was smiling ear to ear and the newborn made a happy little gurgling noise in her throat at the sight of the giant boy. Children always seemed to love Cato for some reason. It was like they couldn’t get enough of him! 

    “Of course,” Iroh said in a gentle voice.

    “Thank you!” the giant smiled and took the child from Mako’s fumbling hands. “Hi, cute one.”

    For only a couple of minutes, Cato held her without anyone noticing. Once they did though they all came rushing over. Everyone loved to watch the gentle giant with anything tiny like kids and animals. Half the guild thought it was adorable how gentle he was and others thought it was funny. Some people thought it was both. But everyone thought it was hilarious when the kids from the kingdom came to see the guild hall. They thought Cato was a literal giant and tried to climb all over him. Not that the giant minded because he loved making the little ones happy but a few times he actually got hurt because of it. 

    Due to him being the second oldest out of seven kids, Cato had a lot of experience with kids. Especially little ones since his youngest siblings just turned three and then there was a four and a six year old. The guild heard many stories of his younger siblings or his nieces and nephews. All in all, Cato was just good with kids and that was something many of the older girls in the guild loved. Lena, Cato’s best friend from childhood, could actually confirm most of the stories.

    While Resa, his old partner, had met only half of his family. The guild silently waited for the day that Resa had to meet Stiles’ family since from what they’ve heard and/or seen the family was a bit… Loud. Praise any and all gods or God that the two large families had not mixed or even met each other. Poor Resa would have a heart attack because of it. Lena might as well-

    “Look at her,” the Master walked over with one of the widest grins anyone ever saw.

    “She is so cute!” Gwen took his arrival as permission to gush about how cute the baby was yet again. 

    “A beauty,” one of the other mages corrected. 

    “Like her mom!” Stiles was proud to contribute to the conversation but she shrunk back in her seat when she noticed them staring at her. Why did she say that Haruka’s mom was a beauty? It was true but it sounded so weird coming from her!

    “This is true!” Iroh exclaimed with a wide smile and a laugh. Stiles praised whatever god that he was there to make it all better.

    “Leave it to Iroh to make a completely awkward moment better.”

    It seemed to be the elder mage’s favorite thing to to do too. Whenever he saw a guild mate get into an awkward situation, he would swoop in and say something that took the attention away from that person. Which is why Stiles was around him a lot.

    Gwen hogged the newborn’s attention for the rest of the day. But it was somewhat amusing to watch the woman freak out when she realize that Haruka was screaming and crying because of something that she did. That something was take the almost asleep child out of Cato’s arms to try and hold her. Not long after that it was time for the eldest made to take her back home.

    Upon request, Stiles and Lena went with Iroh to his nephew’s home to bring back the baby that they had watched all day. They both stumbled to say a quick and awkward hello once the nephew’s wife opened the door. The youngest of the three mages quickly put the bag down in the main corridor, not sure what else to do. Haruka hiccuped in her sleep and everyone smiled. Babies were so cute and an easy distraction.

    A pale red color flashed through the room and Iroh smiled in greeting. Tiny and a surprising color, his niece-in-law’s cat stepped out of the shadows. Natsu mewed at the intruders, fur standing up on end, the hissing getting louder and more aggressive once the cat noticed his new family member fussing in one of their arms. 

    “Is he pink?!” Lena’s dark eyes widened and Stiles attention turned towards the feline. 

Natsu hissed at them, crouched down, and-

    “Natsu!” the niece-in-law gently swatted the cat away.


	3. Chapter Three.

“He’s pink!” Stiles said with wide eyes as she watched the small feline slip underneath the couch, glowing green eyes the only visible thing once he disappeared under the piece of furniture. 

    With a small laugh, the nephew walked down the stairs and knelt down by where the cat was hiding, picking it up once the feline came out from underneath the piece of furniture. Pale red? Maybe. But the cat actually looked pink like an actual princess sort of pink- Lena was stuttering out something about how the cat was pink and how normal cats couldn’t be that color. Natsu the pink cat. He was pink with green eyes that easily spotted any new humans that came into his master’s house.

    The nephew was an attractive man who was almost in his thirties but not quite yet. He had dark hair with green eyes that almost matched Natsu’s vivid, clear eyes. Many of the older girls of the guild talked about how attractive the nephew was and how many times he used to visit his uncle. Stiles was actually one of the first female mages to see Iroh’s nephew since then. The rumors were true, he was incredibly handsome. “Like his uncle used to be.” Everyone found it weird to think of Iroh as so attractive with his current appearance. While he did look more like his nephew then his nephew’s actual father. The brothers did look a like though.

    “Nice to see you again, Uncle,” the young man smiled then turned his gaze towards the two mages who were standing there, awkwardly silent. “Lena, Stiles.”

    Gwen would have laughed about how ‘weak’ the two girls were being at the moment. Charmed so quickly by a man just saying their names. Pff, I bet she would do the same, Lena thought to herself. You shouldn’t be thinking about her! She’ll know! The other mage had an uncanny ability to ‘feel’ when people thought about her. Though this little ability presented itself when people were thinking bad things about her. 

    “Haruka was an angel!” Iroh was smiling ear to ear as he moved closer to his nephew.

    The two talked quickly amongst themselves while his wife nursed their newborn. On the couch across from her sat Iroh’s two guild mates, unsure what to do, and where to look. Did the men move further and further away on purpose? Probably wouldn’t be as awkward if the two young girls didn’t overthink their current situation. By the time Haruka was being burped, Iroh and his nephew disappeared into another room. That left Lena and Stiles alone… With the pink cat. 

    Natsu had decided that those new people seemed okay and weren’t going to hurt the baby. Both girls were gentle enough. That prompted him to jump up onto the couch and walk across their laps. He had his head held high and his tail stuck up in the air as if he owned the place. Natsu the pink cat also chose to ignore the fact that the older one had a sneezing attack. Was she allergic to cats? That would be very unfortunate for her since Natsu didn’t seem to be ready to leave them alone. 

    Stiles frowned and carefully picked the pink cat up which earned a disapproving yowl from the feline. Fur began to stand on end and the cat looked pissed- Until the brunette settled him against her lap and started stroking him. Lena dove towards the other couch while another sneezing fit took her over. Mews of amusement from the other side of the room made her send a glare towards them that could freeze a volcano over. 

    The allergy towards cats never presented itself before so the oldest of the two mages was a bit confused. She sneezed so much and so forcefully that it was actually starting to hurt and she wanted to stop. Maybe if she asked Stiles to go into the other room with the cat she would be fine… Unless it was due to the cat fur which was probably all around the house and would cause her to sneeze relentlessly no matter what.

    Dubbed the dream cat by Lena, Natsu merely slept on Stiles lap for the rest of the visit. Which was why the younger mage didn’t understand why Lena was saying that about the poor pink cat. A lot of people thought it was hilarious and that included Iroh himself. His nephew would hear about what was going on at the guild hall. Lucky made the mistake of asking if the cat was really pink and had to endure his sister ranting about how cats shouldn’t be pink. This rant last for at least an hour and a half.

    How did the guild hall always go from calm to crazy in just a few seconds? Resa sighed with relief as the craze started to calm down around her. Not only that but it stopped but it stopped as quickly and randomly as it had started. For a few more minutes, everyone clumped into little groups, whispering, and pointing. What had happened before she walked into the guild hall? Just as she was about to give up and leave, a group seemed to realize that she was just standing there and waved her over. 

    “Resa!” Neptune whispered hurriedly as he waved at her so she moved closer to him and his little group.

    “What is going on?” She asked with an annoyed tone once she was close enough for them, and only them, to hear her.

    “Everyone is talking about a pink cat,” Bree supplied before her partner could respond.

    “And the Master had had a group of mages in his office for over three hours. The only one that has come in or out is Mitsuki!”

    Mitsuki Prentiss was the guild’s most prized possession. Well, she wasn’t really a possession but no one really knew how to describe her other than that. She was sweet and only wanted to help people. At least she had been ever since her parents died and she left a dark guild to join the one she was currently in. Upon her joining the guild, the Magic Council visited frequently for over a year as she gave them information on a few dark guilds.

    Before that she was a deadly air mage but now she was a healer, someone who made everyone in the guild smile, and another person who could question the Master’s orders. She also happened to be the one who had taught Stiles some of her healing magic. Once upon a time, Cato had tried to ask her out though it failed. Due to Cato being thirteen at the time and Mitsuki being at least twenty-one. The healing mage then took it upon herself to be his older sister in the guild.

    Completed with nicknames, teasing him about any person he seemed to be attracted to, and embarrassing stories about him throughout the years. She even went as far as contacting his actually family to get more stories about him. Mitsuki took it very seriously! 

    News of the people that seemed to be camping out in the Master’s office quickly got around. Everyone sort of wondered why they hadn’t noticed before. Maybe they were old friends of his! But if they were then why hadn’t the Master told the guild that they were coming? Raja voiced his thoughts that something might be wrong with the other guild or maybe their own. Kida was quickly to dismiss that idea because her wife had told her nothing of that sort last time she made it back early from a meeting. It came in handy to be married to a member of the Magic Council. Even better that her wife also came from the same guild but somehow had moved all the way up to a council woman and stayed that way for years. In a few weeks it would be the tenth year that she had been apart of the Magic Council.

    A small creak of a floorboard and the sound of the doorknob turning prompted everyone in the room to go silent. Dozens of eyes were glued to the door as they waited for whoever had been in there for more than three hours to emerge. First the Master stepped out then Mitsuki. Followed by a group of about seven people. One man around the Master’s age was wearing a Magic Council uniform and a young man stood close behind him, wearing an apprentice uniform. The five other people varied in age, gender, and color but no one else wore uniforms or clothing that suggested how high up their ranks were.

    The two younger members of the group looked over the sea of people with curious expression as the guild member stared curiously back at them. All eyes were glued to those seven people as if Mitsuki and the Master weren’t even there with them. Two of the remaining four of the unobserved people to to be married- The woman had a rounded stomach and a darker complexion than her husband’s complexion. A hushed whispered swept through the guild, girls muttering about how pretty the woman was along with her husband. Though many of the whispers seemed to be more about the woman than the man who stood next to her. 

    “Hush!” the Master called out.

Instant silence.

    “Iroh! Please come with us!” The older man who was dressed in the Magic Council uniform spoke loud and clear over the silent guild. 

    The elder mage pushed his way through the crowd and bowed in respect to the group of people before him. A member of the Magic Council asking for him by name? That was either very good or very bad… He looked at his friends for an explanation of what was happening and why but didn’t find anything. 

    Faces blank, the Master and Mitsuki didn’t meet his gaze. That could never be good… The magic council man motioned for him to follow and the group walked out of the guild hall. But the two younger member of the group stayed behind with the Master and Mitsuki. You could almost see how the entire guild hall tensed, waiting for someone to say something, ready to pounce and figure out what was going on. Something was off. As soon as the group started to walk away, the former air mage’s blank expression disappeared and she struggled to hold back the tears. She couldn’t cry in front of the whole guild!

    “Everyone!” Once again his voice silenced the whispers sweeping through the guild hall. “Meet the newest additions to our guild!”


	4. Chapter 4

Gwen and her team were the first ones to go up to the pair after the other two disappeared. They introduced themselves and talked for a while about who knows what until another group of mages joined them. Then another, and another, and another. Soon the only people who had to go up there and introduce to the new guild members were Stiles and Cato. Even Resa had been up there already!

    Resa slowly walked away from the two new mages and towards the other two from talking to the newbies. Her two friends seemed to know what she was going to do- With a sigh, Cato swung an arm around the young mage beside him and walked towards the new pair. Only a few people gave them funny looks and even fewer seemed to notice the taller mage dragging his small friend just a little bit. Stiles didn’t exactly like introducing herself to strange, new people.

    “Hello!” The girl grinned widely when she saw the two approach her and the male next to her who seemed to be brooding just a little bit. She simply jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow so he glared at her before huffing and looking over at the people who had approached them. But he didn’t smile or anything. That was her job.

    “Hello,” Cato greeted with a small nod and a wide smile. He gently nudged Stiles to get her to do something. 

    “Hi.” She spoke so quiet that they couldn’t hear her though the other girl was quick to realize what she just said. 

    “I’m Samira!” the girl grinned and held out her hand towards the other girl.

    “Stiles,” the healer slowly took the girl’s hand, trying to smile at her. Even if she wasn’t the best at smiling and introducing herself, she still tried. That had to count for something!

    “What sort of name is that?” The boy snorted in amusement. 

    “An amazing one,” Resa said from her spot next to Cato. Both of them seemed to be glaring at the male who had laughed at their friend’s name. 

    The older mage hated to admit how much she acted like a parent towards both Cato and Stiles. She was quick to defend them and to make them feel better but even quicker to scold them if they misbehaved. Which the two of them did frequently. Resa didn’t need to have or look after any kids when she could just go to the guild hall and deal with those two children. 

    “I’m sorry about him,” Samira said slowly and turned towards the trio. “He isn’t over our move yet,” she added and smiled at them while the boy glowered.

    “That is understandable,” Cato said softly and ran a hand through his hair as he looked down at the pair. 

    Samira smiled at them though two out of the four people standing around them could tell. Moving and joining a new guild? That would be a lot to take in and handle especially with the guild that they chose.

    Out of all things that the new guys could have been, they ended up being twins. Just with an interesting twist! They didn’t have the same fathers. Samira’s father was the one that they saw with the woman who was pregnant. Maybe that was why Samira seemed to have darker skin than her brother. But that left one question- Who was the brother’s father?

    A nice thing about having someone join the guild was when the new members went on missions with another team from the guild. Just so anyone new could learn the ropes and know how they worked in the guild. But who would take the newbies? No one wanted to go on any missions partly to make sure that Iroh was okay and to see Haruka again and the kingdom was throwing a festival like they did every year. Anyone would die before they missed their own kingdoms festivals… That might be an exaggeration. 

    There was a kingdom that people traveled from across the world to get to for the festival that they had once or twice a year. Mostly men traveled to it though. Since that kingdom was dominated by women and all that people seemed to have to say about those women was how hot they were. Stiles and Resa couldn’t help but wonder how many people there were going to that festival and lying about it. Even Mako talked about how they should stop having the festival. Mainly because so many young girls were taken advantage of in that time. Due to all the men coming from different parts of the word, the partying, and the drinking, a lot of bad things happened during that time. Not many guards were even on duty during the festival so it wasn’t like they could really do anything about it either. 

    A lot of gross stuff happened at that festival so the job board was always flooded with requests from that kingdom and the area around the kingdom for some mage to come and help. One team seemed to be favored amongst all of them and that was a team led by one of the guild’s best mages. Her name was Amethyst- She was funny and adorable but… She was terrifying when something made her angry. Such as the few times that people had made the mistake of picking on her younger brother who she was deathly protective of. 

    Samira took a job with Amethyst after learning that she was one of the best in the entire guild. If not  _the_ best in the entire guild. To try and be the best you should learn from the best. Or the closest to the best that you can find. Amethyst and Samira left with Amethyst’s brother, Adam, a few days after finding the job and arranging a way of transportation. Which left Samira’s brother all by himself with the guild. 

Which also meant that the guild had to deal with his annoying presence. 

    “We need a job,” Resa muttered and glared down at her glass of some kind of alcohol that Mitsuki had given her. 

    “I need to pay my rent!” Stiles said with an exaggerated sigh. 

    “You practically live at my house,” the older mage sent her friend a disapproving look. “And if not at mine then at Cato’s house.”

    As if he knew they were talking about him, the giant walked up to his two friends. The youngest of the group barely had time to scoot over before he plopped himself down next to her with a heavy sigh. If something was wrong and he was just going to sigh until they asked him what was wrong, Resa would punch him. She had enough of that little game especially when the older mages did it just to get on her nerves. She would punch them if she wouldn’t get in trouble for it. 


	5. Chapter 5

“I heard  my name,” he said as he playfully shoved Stiles’ shoulder. 

    “Because you’re creepy and stalk us?” the oldest smiled and leaned forward, chin rested in the palm of her hand.

    “Only stalk you.” Cato flashed a grin and blew a kiss towards her.

    Resa’s nose wrinkled in disgust and she quickly batted at the air like she was batting the kiss away. Her friend looked sincerely hurt though he put a hand over his heart and let out a dramatic sigh, he was fine. A little bit of a drama queen? Yes. Obnoxious and heavily relied on the fact that Resa rarely stayed mad at him? Also yes. The oldest of the group sort of found it impossible to stay mad at either of her younger friends. But only one of them seemed to be aware of that fact. 

    After a while of bickering about what jobs they could and could not take, Cato finally found one that they might be able to do. HELP WANTED! Guiding family + extra through the mountains between Lavender and Beacon. Walking with a bunch of rich people through the mountains? Sure thing. Most of the time no one bother them on missions  mainly because of how giant and menacing Cato looked while doing a job. All they had to do was show off their guild marks and walk with confidence and their heads held high. No one would mess with them then! Or at least no one had ever bothered to try bothering them while they did that so it was the closest thing they had to something that worked and fended off any bandits. Whatever was in between the two kingdoms would not come near this family as long as the three mages were with them. Maybe they could just send Cato and he could get the reward and just split it was them… But that wouldn’t be quite as fun now, would it?

That was all they needed to go through with their mission. 

    Resa was in charge of setting everything up and making plans, Cato was the strength, Stiles was the one that kept them out of trouble and took care of them if any of them every felt sick. Them was referring to the clients. So, really, the little team had their own little rules and ways the missions worked… At least, that is what he gathered from other guild members. Sometimes they could be wrong about how other teams and solo mages worked or how they did a single mission but this team seemed well known throughout the guild. It was time to change the way they work.

    One of the most uncomfortable things to ever do, ever, was watch Stiles when she didn’t have her friends around. She became even more withdrawn and mumbled even when she tried her hardest to be louder, she quickly got overwhelmed. Where were the other two? Her crutches. If Iroh had been there he would have calmed her down by now because for some reason, he was calming. Like a happy and loving grandfather. But Iroh and the other two weren’t there so the young mage was all alone.

A hand slammed down on the bar in front of her which made her jump and completely miss what whoever said.

    “What?” She said as she struggled through a coughing fit. Her throat burned from her drink going down the wrong pipe. She swore that it almost came out of her nose, it had surprised her that much.

    “I’m Koda.”

The male gave her an annoyed look and stood up. Why was her annoyed?! He wasn’t the one who was still struggling to breath because some idiot came and startled him while he was trying to drink. In that moment, Stiles decided that she didn’t really like this new guild member. 

“Samira’s brother?”

“Who else?”

The brunette didn’t answer and instead focused on pressing her palm roughly against her chest, trying to stop the coughing fit that she was having. But she knew it was either this or hiccup. Those could last the poor mage up to about an hour and a half. Koda slowly began to realize that the girl was having trouble  _breathing_ . A few quick and gentle, unsure taps to her back. He couldn’t full on slap her back to make her stop coughing like he would do to his sister now, could he?!

“You okay?” His voice surprised her and she coughed weakly again.

“Fine,” she croaked softly and rubbed her throat before she looked up at him.

“Good.” Koda plopped down on the stool next to her with a devilish smirk playing on his lips. “Let us talk about the mission.”

She almost had another coughing attack. 

    “I was wondering what my part would be. Usually I am the brute but you got that loser so I guess I’ll be the show and he’ll be the talk.” A Cheshire Cat grin came to his lips. “The Master said I could join you and your team on your next mission.”

It was stupid to try and change the Master’s mind to begin with. So why did they keep trying? They had their own little way of doing their jobs! A little system that they stuck to whenever they agreed to help someone. The guy, Koda. would just ruin that. What was he supposed to do?! Maybe they could just trick him into not going- Leave him with Stiles. 

Koda seemed way too proud of himself since all he really did was be annoying around the three of them. They took turns dealing with him though Resa was about to punch him on her second try. Whenever they sent Cato to talk to him, he just went on and on about who was more powerful. The guild had to agree that the older mage was more powerful due to the fact that they knew what he could do. Once they parked a struggling Stiles in front of him, he was suddenly quiet. Quiet enough that the other two actually got to sit and talk amongst themselves while the youngest of the now four mages nervously fiddled with her fingers. 


	6. Chapter 6

        Four didn’t seem to be a lot but they were powerful mages and they would be fine. That was what Cato had to tell his friend while she squeezed his hand and tried to breath properly but that only seemed to make it worse. Panic attacks rarely happened with Stiles but when it did she thought they would never end and she was going to die. Her friend kept telling her that both those things were false but she never believed him. He didn’t know what he was talking about! He wasn’t the one having the panic attack. 

        Resa was asleep with her head against the window and she didn’t like being woken up nor did the pair want to wake her up. It wasn’t like they could ask Koda to help either- The new mage probably didn’t know how to handle a panic attack or anything related to anxiety. Not to mention the fact that they didn’t think he would actually help. 

        The path to one kingdom to another had been blazed hundreds of years before them. All they had to do was follow this one path and they would be there in a few days. If the family ever showed up instead of making the team wait for them. The team were kicking rocks and bickering. It was mainly the two boys who were already pushing each others buttons so Resa prayed that it wouldn’t be so bad during the actual mission! What would happen if they went back to the guild anyway? 

        Before any idea likes that could be shared, the ground started to tremble. Both Resa and Cato stood in front of Stiles like she wouldn’t be able to defend herself against… Whatever was coming. No one did anything that they would regret when the saw the wagons charging at them, both drawn by horses that looked peeved. Koda was the first of the group to greet the clients though he was almost trampled in the process of moving forward and closer to the wagons as the drivers pulled them to a stop.

“I thought there was only three of you.” an aged man with spectacles and beady eyes stared down at the four of them. Maybe they could send one of the four home.

“Which one of you is Resa Walker?” A woman stood up next to the man and looked out over the small group of mages. 

Her beady eyes matched her husband’s eyes though her glare was more direct than the man’s was. Which probably meant she was the scarier of the two even though her husband seemed pretty scary. After eyeing the other three and deciding that they weren’t the Resa Walker she wanted, her eyes landed on the true holder of the name. She smiled and motioned her over with a finger. The rest of the group were piling off the wagons and stretching, some complaining about sore butts, others complained about the heat. 

A handful of girls that varied in age and appearance observed the two new males from afar while the men didn’t really seem interested in either of the female mages. They had such high standards that they didn’t bother looking at the new women who would be traveling with them for a few days. That would be a new one! The mob of nicely dressed people were longer than any the group ever saw. 

Did they underestimate how many people were going to be with them? The mages watched from their new perch that was the driver seat of one wagon as the people mingled amongst each other. Like they hadn’t been stuck in three wagons for hours on end with only the person beside them to talk to. Otherwise they would look rude talking across the wagon! A few of the males took a sudden interest in the three and made their way over with curious gazes. Cato turned, opening his mouth to tell one of the other two to talk to them but he was met by a piercing glare from Koda and a panicked look from Stiles. With a small sigh and a huff, the giant slid off his seat and stood. The men who had approached seemed taken aback by the sheer size of him but quickly got over it. After all, they did not want to look like they were afraid of other men in front of their wives and women!

“The big one usually do all the talking?”

Wide brown eyes met piercing blue ones and the younger mages quickly looked away.

    “If Resa isn’t with us, yeah.” Her voice was so soft and she almost looked scared, like a mouse trapped in a corner. 

    “And what do you do? Stand there and look like a mouse?” He stared at her face.

    The girl frowned and looked up at him, trying to look threatening by sitting up straight, and puffing out her chest. A move she adopted by watching some of the other guild members which included the ‘manly man’ named Niklaus. “A true manly brute!” That was something he liked to tell the new guild members even if they didn’t believe him. But Niklaus did help Stiles seem more threatening a bunch of times. 

A small snort brought her back out of her thoughts.

    “You’re just furthering my point!” 

    “I- I am not!” She managed to not mumble when she said that. Though she did say it louder than she had expected.

    At least thirteen pairs of eyes snapped over to her. Cato raised an eyebrow at her from his spot just a few feet away, talking to the men who had approached the mages. What was that all about? Oh, yes. Koda basically calling her a mouse. She looked over at him and he was clearly trying not to laugh at her and what she just did though a few giggles did escape him. Luckily, her friend seemed to sense her discomfort and embarrassment, moving over to the wagon in two long strides. Cato rested a hand on the younger mage’s knee while she took a deep breath. Despite the fact that there was a step for getting up and down, Stiles allowed Cato to pick her up and off her seat before placing her on the ground.

    Many females seemed to be disappointed when they saw the action. But before anything else could happen, Resa and the couple who seemed to be the ring leader appeared. She gave her two friends a look before her gaze moved to Koda who still sat on the bench. The look of suspicion didn’t leave her face until she looked away and noticed just how many people there was in front of her. 

    “So many people,” she said softly to herself as her eyes widened at the mere sight of everyone surrounding her.

Almost too many people!

    “I hope it is fine that we brought along a few more people than we discussed!” The old woman chirped as if it was completely fine. 

    “That’s fine… It’s just-” She didn’t even get to finish her sentence before a certain someone cut in to the conversation.

    “Too many.”

    “Really?!”

    “Yes.”

    “Yes! No! Koda, be quiet!

        The male held up his hands in mock surrender though that infuriating smirk still stayed on his lips as he turned his attention somewhere else. The girls that now swarmed towards the men? Great. That would be eager to hear stories of all the adventures that he didn’t go on but they wouldn’t know that he didn’t do any of the things he did in his stories. Which was what made it fun. The fact that people believed anything. 


	7. Chapter 7

Four mages and three wagons. Resa easily came up with the plan that Cato, Koda, and herself would walk with one wagon each while Stiles rode with them since there was always someone complaining about some discomfort- No matter how ridiculous it was and how much she had to get to the serious cases. Once the wagon she was on was satisfied and all feeling well, she would move out and to another wagon, then walk with the other when she was finished checking on everyone in each wagon. Every hour and a half to two hours they would switch what wagons they walked with. That was for Cato and Koda while Resa stayed with the front for half way then in the back half way. While the oldest was in the back, the second oldest would take up the front. 

“Where are we going to stop so we can sleep?” One of the children asked with wide eyes as the mages tried to explain what was going to happen.

“It depends on how far we are!” One man chimed in with a grin before any of the hired wizards could get too far into explaining the plan.

“What if we are really far away?!” The child exclaimed in horror as his eyes widened.

“That won’t happen,” Cato said soothingly as he stepped closer to the cart so it was like he was talking directly to the child. 

“Unless it does.” The other male was grinning ear to ear at the challenge that he had just made up.

His fellow travelers and wizards for hire gaze him disinterested and slightly annoyed looks as they continued on the way.

    Lavender was a pretty kingdom and all but it had a lot of problems- One of them being how much the high class complained. Even Resa glared at the back of their heads for a good ten minutes. Poor Stiles-

    She was probably ready to rip their heads off. Five minutes they had her ‘heal’ someone who wasn’t really sick but they were convinced that there was something truly wrong with the woman as she kept complaining. At one point, she was in the back of the wagon Cato was walking with, trying to stand up, though the movements of the cart made her sway, being physically drained from using so much magic did not help one bit. The woman she was trying to help kept complaining and holding her stomach though there really wasn’t anything wrong with her. Friends of the woman crowded around her in worry and they were all glaring at the healer like it was their job.

    “It hurts so much!” the woman moaned loudly and dramatically as she leaned forward. It was more like she was putting on a show than feeling sick.

    “It isn’t anything but cramps. I can ask if we could stop so everyone can move-”

    “And be behind schedule?!” One woman shrieked loudly which made every kid and mage flinch. But now they had their attention on the woman.

    “Five minutes won’t put us behind schedule.”

    The wagon jarred and she almost fell back but one of the older kids around ten or eleven helped her steady herself. But the boy could do nothing about those piercing glares that she was receiving. Even more people seemed to be glaring at her with each passing second that she didn’t ‘heal’ the complaining woman. It made the poor healer feel overwhelmed which just added to her exhaustion.

    “Just five minutes and she’ll be okay.” The healing mage spoke weakly and quietly.

    “Speak up, girl!” One elderly woman had enough with the mage’s quietness and shook her shoulder.

    “It will set us back five minutes or more! We cannot have that.”

    “If we go through the right-”

    “Speak up!”

    “That would be a terrible idea!”

    Stiles had her eyes squeezed closed so she didn’t realize what was happening. But the wagon suddenly and forcefully rocked forward and slammed back which made her stumble only to be steadied by the older child again. One woman was about to slap her, hand all the way back, but a large hand quickly wrapped around the woman’s wrist to stop her. Everyone seemed to go dead silent as the woman stared in shock at the mage. Her gaze was met by a fierce cold glare as he forcefully pushed the hand back to the woman’s side. 

    “Stiles,” he said and held out his hand.

    Once the healer had a tight grip on his hand, the older mage pulled her up and to the edge of the wagon. She even had to step in between the clients and soon after they started squawking about how they would lower the reward. None of the mages seemed to care and the two watched from their posts as Koda pulled the girl to his chest, holding her bridal style. 

    “Wha-”

    “Shush. You’re too drained to keep up.”

    It was physically visible how displeased her friends were that he was the one taking care of her at a time like this. Cato would be fine if he was the one carrying the small healer, it wouldn’t be a problem, he  _wanted_ to carry her. Both of them didn’t want the guild’s newest member touching Stiles though it looked like she had already passed out in his arms. A small nod from the other male and the three wagons were moving again.

    “You know we have to lower their pay now,” Mr. Vanderhall said softly to the leader of the team.

    “You worked her until she collapsed!” Resa all but spat as she glared ahead of her. But she knew there was no use in fighting with the client without getting everyone in trouble or their pay cut in half.

    Were they really this careless and cruel to the mages they employed? Every now and again, she would take a few steps to the side and look back to check on her friend. Asleep in Koda’s arms for two hours, pale skinned, and looking like she was going to be sick when she woke up. Resa refused to switch spots when the time came because she did not trust Cato up there by himself after the people were so cruel to Stiles. The giant was furious at their clients and they didn’t need him getting into any fights. 

    If what Mr. Vanderhall said was true and he was cutting down on the other two’s pay then they needed their parts of the award. To help Stiles keep her apartment and all. Resa didn’t really need the money either so she could just give it to her friend to help pay for the cozy little apartment that she had. But that probably wouldn’t work because the healer wouldn’t take it, she would feel bad if she did.


	8. Chapter 8

 By the morning, they were already well past the halfway mark on the trail. It was quiet besides the screeches of some kind of birds that flew above them in taunting circles like they were waiting for something to go wrong so they could swoop in and grab a snack. All three wagons had put a little roof up so the sun didn’t glare so intensely down at them. They had done that when they stopped to eat and stretch, walk around, and go to the bathroom. Even if all of them complained about not having an actual bathroom to do their business in. Most of the ladies, especially the older ones were the people who complained the most. Though the younger girls didn’t really have a problem with it once they realized if they didn’t go right then then they would have to hold it for even longer.

    “Are we there yet?” One child droned for about the tenth time since he woke up twenty minutes before when his father shook him awake so he would go to the bathroom.

    The mage that was walking alongside the wagon with ease peeked one eye open to look over at the young boy. He was so annoying- Though he was just a kid and he had been sitting there quietly for a good three hours before he even fell asleep. Once the parents seemed to realize it was their child complaining, they were quick to hush him. Poor kid. 

    “We are almost there!”

    All the children in that wagon looked over in surprise that the question had been answered so quickly and suddenly. A smiling Cato greeted their gaze and soon the children were smiling too. Which seemed to be yet another effect that the giant mage had on children. Maybe Cato’s smiles were dangerously contagious…

    Once it hit midday, the drivers of the wagons let the mages hop aboard. they had been walking all night and day so they need a break, at least a little break. Especially since it was the hottest it had been all year even in the mountains between the two kingdoms. No one in the second cart had asked for Stiles help again after the night’s events so she sat up by Resa and Mr. Vanderhall. Even if it was awkward and silent, it was still better than sitting in the second cart. 

    Luckily the man didn’t bring up the fact that her reward had been lowered a mere few hours ago. But she seemed so tired, still exhausted, so her friend didn’t think that she would actually care. Would Koda take the news hard? He was literally brand new but the team knew that he had a temper. It was just one of those obvious things about him. But he had been pretty good at containing his anger so far! Maybe there was a little hope for him.

    “May we stop?! Please, Mister!”

    The mage walking with the third cart looked up at the sudden voice that forced him out of his own thoughts. A tiny little girl, probably only five or six years old, was staring at him with wide green eyes. God damnit! He had a weakness for really cute little kids! Though he tried to keep it a secret from everyone he met- Sometimes it just had a way of weaseling it’s way into his life and ruining it. Now would not be a good time to have that take advantage of him. Especially since if he gave in then all the kids would ask him to do something.

    “Why?” He asked in a skeptical voice as he raised an eyebrow at her.

    “I have to pee,” the girl whispered softly with a blush, looking terribly embarrassed, while the boy next to her snorted. 

    The poor thing looked so embarrassed! Especially once the boy reacted and her little pinchable cheeks turned even pinker than they had been before. It did not help that she seemed to look like Samira when she was that age. With a small, defeated sigh, the mage nodded and shouted the name of the group’s leader. He held up his hand as a sign to stop. The line of wagons came to a jarring halt.

    “What is it?!” One woman who had been startled by the sudden and unannounced stop shouted in annoyance. 

Koda picked up the girl and set her carefully on her feet, placing a hand on top of her head to make sure she didn’t rush off anywhere.

    “Bathroom break!” He called to the other mages when he noticed their questioning stares.

    Bathroom break? They were so close to a tiny village in the mountains where they could take a nap too. A nap sounded so inviting to the team of mages and even half of the travellers seemed happy at the thought. Though they were already stopped-

    “Bathroom break!”

    A cheer rang through the mob of kids who had been sitting on their butts for hours, too afraid to ask, and they all scrambled out of the wagons. Some parents stumbled after their kids while some stayed seated. All the adults who remained seated seemed pissed off that they had stopped for something so stupid. Those people included Mr. Vanderhall. Resa could practically hear Koda’s reward being cut to a lower number.

    During the time it took the kids to go to the bathroom, Resa decided that Koda was the most annoying person that she had ever met. In her life. How dare he set their mission back like that! Of course it was to let a little girl go to the bathroom but they didn’t know that! She already had to listen to the Vanderhalls complain about the wizards for hire anyways. Cato and Stiles seemed fine with the random stop but the oldest of the four wasn’t, far from it. She would be the one hearing about it later while her team walked on, oblivious to the verbal torture she was going through.


	9. Chapter 9

Not that they had much time to dwell on it because less than an hour later, they reached the village in the mountains. It was closer to Beacon though it was one of the checkpoints between the Kingdom of Lavender and the Kingdom of Beacon. Dinner time! Resa went ahead and walked straight to the mayor’s house that sat in the middle of the village, sort of like the heart of the little village. One, two. She leaned back on her heel as she waited for the man to open the door and greet her.

Nothing.

    The door didn’t open and she was not greeted with a sexist comment from the new and young mayor of the village. -She still couldn’t believe that they had voted for such a self-obsorbed, sexist man.- They lead mage could swear she could feel the vein in her forehead throb in annoyance as she realized that he was not going to answer her knock.

Three, four. Still nothing. Five, six. Nothing. 

    Everyone stared quietly as she snapped and started banging on the door, giving the occasional kick for good measures. The door shook and almost everyone was sure that it was going to break down any second. What was she yelling? It sounded like a different language. The travelers all glanced at the other mages who were watching the scene unfold in front of them with curious expression. None of them were exactly sure why she was doing what she was doing but they needed to look through the whole village.

    “No one here!”

    Koda came back out from the fifth house he had checked on and the fifth house to be completely empty on the inside with no signs that anyone had ever lived there. Some houses looked like people were home, lights on, food on the stove, childrens toys scattered everywhere. While others looked completely trashed and like the residents had grabbed anything they could before fleeing in a hurry. That left the house in a mess that looked like a tornado had swept through it. 

    “The mayor isn’t in his house,” Stiles said. Behind her, somewhere deeper in the village, there was a crashing noise. “Or in the city.”

    Mr. Vanderhall seemed at loss for words as he stared at the scene in front of him. What had happened here? Where were the villagers and why had they deserted their homes? It couldn’t have been deserted for long since some houses still had warm food on the table. Some of the kids had taken it upon themselves to help the mages look through each and every house. All reported back to one of the male mages.

    “Where in the world could they have gone?!” The lady that had tried to hit the healer frowned to herself. As if the disappearance of the village was an inconvenience to her. 

    “Beacon?” One child suggested meekly and stared up at the adults who continued to freak out.

    Beacon was only a few hours away, about half a day travels. But… The entire village was empty. It was the only reasonable explanation they had at the moment too. One of the mages patted his head and told him good job before sending him back to help his friends.

    “Stiles! Go help Resa look for more clues about where the villagers went and why!” 

    Eyes widening, the young mage nodded and rushed off in the direction that their leader had ran off in earlier. It wasn’t rare to see Cato taking charge but it was surprising for some reason. Today was no exception for that. How would he deal with an annoyed Resa, though? Anxiety attacks were the only thing he vaguely knew how to stop and even then he wasn’t good at that. 

    “Everyone! Get back in the wagons!” The giant called and everyone rushed to do as he told them.

    Only a few people continued to complain and it was mainly the older people who were tired of the wizards for hire bossing them around. You know the ones with no patience. Just ten minutes passed before the two female mages came rushing towards them. The mages leader yelled something that neither male could quite understand. But it seemed to be urgent as the two skidded to a halt next to the wagons, both taking deep breaths, all while being stared at.

    “We must get to Beacon quickly!” Resa exclaimed, “We must notify the Magic Council of what is going on in this village!”

    “Why?!” Mrs. Vanderhall asked shrilly as she scowled down at the both of them.

    “Something is very, very wrong with this place,” Stiles said in between trying to catch her breath.

    “Alright!” Surprisingly, it was Koda who flung himself into action first. “Let’s move, people! Girls, get in the wagons until you are well enough to walk.”

    Quickly forgotten by the children, the village without a name was stuck in every adults mind as they continued to move farther and farther away from it. Cato seemed to become a bit annoyed when he realized the girls weren’t going to tell him what they saw. For a good two hours they were completely silent. About another two and a half hours to go until they got to Beacon but they were in a hurry. Mr. Vanderhall set his horses into a gallop and, once the males climbed into the carts, so did the other drivers. They would get to Beacon as soon as they could! Then the mages would notify the Magic Council about whatever was going on in that creepy village. 

    Now the time was reduced down to an hour at the most. Everyone made a mental note to let the horses rest for a  _long_ time after they arrived. Poor things were being worked to the bone. All the business that all the people thought they had in the Kingdom of Beacon was forgotten. Twenty plus people thought about the deserted village and everyone stayed silent. Too afraid to even gossip about it. A first for some of the women amongst them. Too afraid to do anything other then wonder where everyone had went and why they had left their homes like that. What if it had something to do with magic?! Magic was getting more and more powerful, not to mention popular, with each decade that went by. 

    It did and many of the women who were sitting silently in the carts knew it. Why else would the Magic Council need to know about the village in the mountains? Of course, the entire population of the village had disappeared but still. What could they possibly do? Tempted to start gossiping, various women merely held on tightly so there was no chance they would fall out of the wagon as it sped along. Only twenty more minutes to go! They could see the outline of the kingdom on the horizon and it got closer with each passing minute. 


	10. Chapter 10

What had she been thinking? Trying so desperately that she had moved on and gotten along with his wife. He would hate her if he ever found out the truth… Now Iroh was paying for her mistakes and being questioned by the Magic Council! All while she sat, home free, everyone thought she was so innocent! Some friend she was.

    If Iroh was arrested then there was no doubt that he would figure out what she had done all those years ago and what she was currently doing to keep the mascarade up. All that hard work would be for nothing… No. He wouldn’t be able to have any visitors. That was how bad her crimes were. She would be put in solitary confinement and one of those horrible collars that rid you of your magic would be around her pretty little neck. An embarrassment to the guild! Someone who was desperate to go back to the dark side- All those horrible things would be said about her because of what she did.

    “Can I have a tank of ale?” Lucky was sitting at the bar.

He gave her a weak but heartwarming smile and she smiled weakly in return.

    “Coming up!”

How had she managed to not just break apart at this point?


	11. Chapter 11

  Beacon military greeted them once the gateway for the wagons was opened. It was easy to pick out which one was the leader of the military that came to greet them. Resa stepped down and walked toward them with her shoulders squared and her head held high. Was she trying to look taller and more threatening? Most definitely. How else would they take her serious in that moment? 

Mr. Vanderhall payed for the hotel they stayed in while Mrs. Vanderhall paid the mages their reward. It was lower than what was promised to them but it was not too bad. Koda didn’t have a fit about getting less money either! The two mages didn’t seem to notice that their halves were that much less than the other two. Both seemed more concerned with Resa going to tell the Magic Council about the village and how they would be summoned. There wasn’t enough time to travel to the Magic Councils base of operations. The mages had to settle for summoning an apprentice or someone who worked alongside the Magic Council if they wanted to get the word to them. Hopefully the apprentice, or whoever they managed to summon, would get the message to their superiors right away!

Resa was the one who found something so she would be the one to summon the apprentice even if everyone else had things to add to it. The other three mages would have to wait in the other room while it happened since they couldn’t know how summoning someone from the Magic Council worked. Even if it was just an apprentice. They couldn’t know- Not yet anyway.

How would the Council deal with it? But first of all what was _it_ ? Stiles had not known anything was wrong back in the village. At least, not until she looked over and saw her friend and leaders face. While the healer sat and thought to herself, both male mages were up and pacing. Maybe even panicking just a little bit.

“Quiet!” Koda whispered so harshly and suddenly that Stiles actually jumped in surprise. 

In the next room over, there was quiet whispering going on, like they were afraid that someone else would hear them. One voice sounded urgent while the other voice sounded annoyed and like whoever the voice belonged to didn’t care. It was easy to figure out which voice belonged to Resa. 

Moving quickly, the hotheaded mage burst into the room while his comrades screeched in surprise at him. Both of them stumbled out of the room to try and catch him before he did anything stupid that would get them all in trouble. Though they both froze for a moment when they saw the apprentice was the same one that they had seen back at the guild hall. The day that the twins joined the guild. Resa looked both horrified and pissed off at the three of them interrupting the little, urgent meeting she was in the middle of. 

“Listen up, Simon,” Koda said harshly and pulled the apprentice close by the collar of his jacket. “You tell your stupid Magic Council that something ain’t right at that village! No one was there and some houses where trashed while others looked like something out of a magazine. There was  _fake food_ left out in the houses. And before you start yapping at me, I know there is something wrong because I felt it.”

A snort came from the new male until he realized that Koda was holding him off the ground by the collar. And a good three inches off the ground, at least. Once he began to freak out, the mage dropped him onto the floor.

“You  _felt_ it?” The boy, Simon, asked mockingly even though he was literally on the ground, staring up at Koda. 

“Yes!” Do I need to remind ya of what happened last time you didn’t listen to me?!” The tone that Simon spoke to him seemed to piss the boy off. 

But the apprentice’s eyes widened and Koda grinned, looking triumphant in the matter.

    “Now tell the stupid Magic Council about that village before I make you.”

His team gawked as the apprentice nodded and disappeared. 

    No one dared to ask him what all of that was about. the team just stared at him for a good three hours and even followed him throughout the rooms. If he would of known this would be their reaction then he would have done it in private. God damnit! He almost spilled his drink because of them!

    “Would you quit gawking?!” The brute snapped and the three of them shrunk away like they had just been slapped.

    “How do you know someone who is almost on the magic council?” Cato asked suspiciously and leaned closer to the other male.

    “And what happened last time he didn’t listen to you?” Stiles had to stand on her toes to look over Cato’s shoulder since she was so small.

A hiss of annoyance left the newest member of the team when they started asking questions.

    “He is my grandpa’s apprentice and none of your business, Dormouse.”

Dormouse? 

    But no one bothered to bring it up again because it was just so… Weird. Plus whenever they tried, Koda would glare at them and hiss like he was some kind of cat. What kind of person hisses like a cat?! Koda. It actually got to the point where he deliberately and openly tried to avoid them at all cost. 

    “Koda?”

He almost snapped at whoever it was until he saw it was Stiles and instantly calmed down. If he snapped at her she would probably cry. But what did she want?

    “Why do you call me Dormouse?”

    “Because of the mouse part.”

    A snarky little smirk settled on the second male’s lips as he watched the girl’s reaction to his words. The first male, Cato, sat across and room and was staring at him as he talked to the youngest of the team. He had been for some time now but once the youngest mage went up to talk to him, the look changed. Huh… Wonder why. Koda glanced up at the girl and smiled when he saw that she had a blush on her cheeks. She seemed so small and innocent right then- His weakness. It did not help that she was a good year or two younger than him.

    “And it isn’t like we can’t all hear you muttering to yourself, Dormouse. You are a fierce and fiery little thing, aren’t you?”

    Resa stood up and made her way over to the two of them. At first glance, you would of thought that she was going over to them to yell at the new member of their team for being such an idiot. Surprisingly she didn’t stop next to her friend. Instead, she plopped down beside the newest member of the team and stared at him. While the other two watched with shocked but curious expressions. What was going to happen?

    She was too close to him. Way too close! It was weird! Dark cheeks flushed when he realized that her hand was on his thigh like some weird way of trying to flirt or be suggestive. With a childlike, confused noise, he flung himself up and off of the couch. Right into the other two’s waiting arms. A small gasp left his lips as he began to struggle.

    They were crazy! What did they think they were doing? Whatever it was, he probably wouldn’t like it. He just wanted them to let him go!

    “You are now part of this team! And as a team we share important things with each other!”

    Resa looked a lot bigger and a lot more terrifying than she usually was every day. It actually looked like she was surrounded by the flames of Hell at the moment. Wait- Why did he think that?! Either he was hallucinating or he looked at too many of those graphic novels that younger kids enjoyed reading.

    “Now if you will not tell us exactly what happened between you and Simon- I’ll be forced to take drastic measures that no one has stood through!”

    “Go ahead.”

    The response seemed to surprise all three of the other mages and, looking back, Koda realized that he actually could have gotten away. If only he had taken them by surprise right then and there when they just stood and stared at him for about five minutes. But that didn’t happen and the three quickly snapped back into character.

    “So be it.”

 


	12. Chapter 12

  Death. Tortue. Destruction of him mentally. What were they going to do to him?! Nothing as drastic as his imagination had given him. No, it was much worse than that. It was something that could take down great emperors and kings! Something that would give other people nightmares. Tickling. 

    How the hell did she know that he was ticklish?! Not to mention where he was most ticklish. Deep, long laughs erupted from his throat as the leader of their team tickled him mercilessly, wiggling her fingers over his collar, stomach, under his arms. The two holding him almost found his laughter down right contagious and started to giggle themselves. Resa somehow managed to keep a blank face through this all. 

That was how the tickle war began.

    It ripped the team apart and left every person for themselves much to Stiles horror. No one but Koda could even get close to winning against Resa who had been dubbed the Tickling Queen. While Stiles was the weak link or so it seemed in some cases… Until she decided enough was enough and went all out on the boys. She took them all by surprise and while she destroyed the boys, Resa cheered and yelled something about girl power.

    Lasting for days, the Tickle War kept the mages busy as they waited for the Magic Council to respond to their news about the village without a name. Their little war kept them very busy, at least. It was almost like its own historical event. If Simon ever even delivered the news to the Council then they were going to get back to them soon. Even with threats that the mage made towards him and considering the personal relationship, it would be a surprise if he didn’t. 

    But that didn’t stop anyone from worrying about it. Some of the people from the journey would see them when they tried to go out and one of two things happened- They were either ignored completely in a sort of ‘fuck you’ moment or the people approached them and started asking questions. Usually these were the sort of questions that they could not answer just yet. Why? Everyone wanted to know what was happening to the village without a name. Even though the four mages themselves didn’t even know what was going on with it.

    “Truce?”

    “Truce.”

    Cato took the smaller hand in his and grinned as he shook it. All while Stiles looked just a little bit nervous and a little bit guilty. Why would she look guilty before she even did anything? Unless…

    “Unless what?”

Shit. He said that out loud.

    “Nothing! It isn’t anythi- Ack!”

    A hard body collided with his back and sent him tumbling onto the ground which was, thankfully, covered in pillows at that point in the war. The two evil masterminds grinned and started their attack. How could he have fallen for that?! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Then again he didn’t think Stiles was the person to ever do something like this. But when he managed to roll over and squish one offender, he was surprised to see Resa grinning down at him. Stiles sat on the ground, a safe distance away from the attack, watching with a small smile. That meant that she hadn’t broken their truce. It almost meant that Resa, if not Resa and Koda, were the ones tickling him.

    “Stop!” He called desperately between laughs. He couldn’t breath.

    “Enough!”

That voice was new. 


	13. Chapter 13

Mages were supposed to be strong and powerful people of magic but, for some reason, people decided it was okay for children to try and learn magic. Children with now magic background in any parts of their family tree were trying to learn magic. It wasn’t completely impossible. But they needed the correct training. It made the council man sneer with disgust especially when his eyes landed on one mage in particular. His grandson quickly got to his feet and bowed.

    “Grandfather Pakku,” he greeted quietly and kept his head bowed, staring at his feet.

    “Koda.” The old man didn’t seem so thrilled to see his young grandson. Especially when he was with people like them.

    “Councilman Pakku,” The three mages greeted and bowed for him, being respectful. Or maybe they were just following Koda’s example.

    Really? This team? This was the team that his grandson chose to go on his first mission with? Maybe the master of the guild had set him up with this team and if that was so then the council man would have to have a word with him. Pathetic and lazy. That’s what his grandson was. And threatening Simon? Even more so that he brought up a past event-

    “I am here about your concerns with the village in between the two kingdoms.”

    Pakku had the same piercing blue eyes as his grandson which threw the entire team off as they tried to look him in the eye. It was weird- It felt like Koda was looking at them but he wasn’t. Finally, Resa managed to look him in the eyes and not think about her team mate. An impatient noise left the council man and Koda coughed awkwardly which seemed to get the oldest team member’s attention.

    “Yes. I found something that disturbed me and-”

    One hand being raised was all it took to silence her though it made her frown in both annoyance and anger. If he came to hear their concerns about the village then shouldn’t they be able to talk? Resa’s frown deep as silence settled between them and stayed that way for a good eight minutes.

    “I found something unsettling about the village,” the brunette declared and held her head high. “I am also deeply concerned about the disappearance of all the villagers.”

    Four pairs of eyes locked on her but she kept her eyes on the council man. He had looked surprised that she dare talk to him without permission and after he had silenced her the first time. His face went blank as he listened to her ramble on about her concerns of the village without a name. The tension in the air slowly drove the rest of the team crazy as they watched the interaction.

    “We know that already.”

    “Y-You know?”

    “Of course! An entire village is starting to vanish along with the villagers going missing. We are the Magic Council and it is our job to know about these things.”

    So… The Magic Council knew the whole time that they were trying to tell them about it? Then why hadn’t they informed the guild that something so horrible was happening? Maybe all the guilds could help! Maybe… 

    “If you know then there must be searches for the villagers!” Cato exclaimed in the middle of the pregnant silence.

    Pakku was visibly annoyed and taken aback with the sudden outburst from the boy. That was two outburst today and each one was by a different person. Would his grandson be the next one to do so? Or would it be the little girl? What was he thinking? Talking to someone on the Magic Council like that! Resa seemed to sense it too because she put her hand on his shoulder.

    “Trust that we are doing everything we can to find out what is happening to the village.”

    Just like he came in without the four mages seeing, he left. More like vanished before their eyes. Koda visibly relaxed once his grandfather had left but his team was too busy to notice that little detail. Nothing was said for a good ten minutes then the older two snapped into action and left the other two behind.

    Stiles turned to say something to the other boy but he was already moving towards his room. A small frown came to her lips and she moved to her own room while running a hand through her hair. 

    “Yesterday was weird,” the giant mumbled at breakfast the next morning, all ruffled and sleepy. 

    “Where did you two go?” The youngest of the four turned her gaze towards the two of them. Now that Resa was awake, she seemed to be wide awake, all traces of sleep gone. 

    “To investigate and visit the White Fang.”

    Beacon’s very own guild, White Fang. It was about twice the size as their own guild and had some pretty interesting individuals in it. Quite a few of them used transformation magic or were faunus. Master Macao was a faunus. One of the most fierce faunus that ever lived- 

    You see, back when there was really bad hatred toward the faunus, they would do anything to make it stop. Literally anything. A lot of them were killed, some made pro-faunus movements, others tried to ‘cure’ themselves. Usually the faunus who were ‘curing’ themselves had the help of some human scientists. Those scientists did cruel experiments on those faunus. And that was how the Grimm Faunus were born.

    Master Macao was a child of two Grimm Faunus who were killed by humans who discovered what those scientists had made. People weren’t upset because the cruelty of the experiments but the fact that they made them stronger and more dangerous even if the faunus were one of the most gentle people to ever live. Only a few of the children were left as evidence of what happened to those poor creatures and most of the children were killed or starved to death. A few of them were actually ‘hired’ by companies and became a laborer that died shortly after.

Either due to poor work conditions and harsh labor or coworkers ganging up on them.

    White Fang had been the name of a pro-faunus movement that Macao had started with an elderly faunus who was forced into labor and died soon after. It also became one of the biggest movements in the kingdom’s history. There was no surprise as it slowly built into a huge and powerful guild. To have them as an ally was a good thing because they were smart and fierce fighters- As well as a lot harder to take down than a human mage. Not to mention the fact that 90% of them were S class wizards. Even the young ones!

    “Master Macao said some of his guild members would help us search for the villagers,” Cato explained despite his sleepy state. His eyelids were actually still drooping as he fought to stay away until he had some tea or coffee.

    “Grandpa said that the Magic Council was taking care of it,” the newest team member fumed at what he heard.

    Something in the air seemed to shirt and Koda glared down at his plate full of food. It was a good point and he knew that but there was no way he was sharing his life story with them. Absolutely no way. It was too early on, not to mention that he would never tell them about it. Ever. Samira barely knew what he went through and she was his twin sister!

    “Guys,” Stiles said slowly and they all looked over at her. “Shouldn’t we… I don’t know… Not meddle in something for once?” She asked nervously.

Their guild had a reputation for meddling in other guilds affairs. Even if they ended up helping in the end, it was still annoying.

    Her two friends looked at each other and burst out into fits of laughter which made the youngest of the group frown. Stop meddling? Oh, it was almost too funny. And since when did Stiles even use that word?! Again the group didn’t seem to notice the new male’s reaction to everything.

    “Shouldn’t we at least send the guild a letter and tell them where we are?” He asked and looked up.

    “The Master did get upset with us because he didn’t know when we got back from our last mission,” the giant admitted quietly and glanced at his friend. 

    “I’ll do that first thing today!”

    “Thank you.” The guild’s team of idiots sighed in relief.

    Good mornings were thrown at them like attacks during a battle when they finally stepped out of the room. Everyone seemed to be so nice and friendly here at Beacon. All three of them were going out. Surprisingly, Koda was the one who requested to stay behind while Stiles was excited to go with Cato to the White Fang guild hall. It would be like something from her dreams! Because the young mage had really weird dreams that came out of nowhere.


	14. Chapter 14

Lucky  for them, they did not run into anyone that they escorted to the city. That would be really annoying on a day such as today, really annoying. The group split up after ten minutes of walking together. Resa was off to message the guild about where they were while Stiles and Cato were off to the White Fang’s guild hall. A huge building that stood proud with the Guild’s flag blowing in the wind. It was easily twice the size of their guild hall. 

    “What’s the password?!”

    The two jumped and spun around to look over at the faunus who was grinning at them in amusement. Smiling ear to ear, the brown hard boy had slightly pointed ears, tan skin, and a matching tail that lazily swung behind him. A small part of his guild mark could be seen poking out of the collar of his shirt. Standing at almost the same height as Cato, he was very attractive.

    “There wasn’t any password last time.” The giant frowned and crossed his arms as the faunus studied them.

    Eyes lightening up, the faunus stepped closer to the mage and looked him in the eye. After a second of staring at him, the faunus began to grin again. The grin almost took up his entire face at that point. It made Stiles think of a mischievous elf the way he looked.

    “You’re the mage from yesterday!” He stared up at Cato since the giant was still an inch of two taller than him.

    “Yes… And you are?” Cato raised an eyebrow at him.

    “Khan!” His tail curled even more when he got happier.

    Khan the Monkey Faunus. The mage did remember him from the other day since he was one of the people who first greeted him and Resa when they visited. Master Macao told them to be careful around the mischievous little monkey. Especially since he seemed to take a liking to the other male mage. 

    “Your friend shrunk and got less scary.” 

    Stiles looked up in surprise at the little comment and found herself looked at the monkey who wouldn’t stop smiling. It was a joke, yes? The joke seemed to make her friend smile and- wait. What was that? Something about her friend seemed off especially when Khan turned to look at him. Must be something to do with the monkey’s whole smiling thing since he had yet to stop smiling like an idiot.

    “Password?” There it was again.    

    “We don’t know the darn password! You stupid monkey!”

    Two pairs of eyes widened at the sudden outburst from the tallest of the three. He looked annoyed and frustrated while the other two wore shocked expressions as they stared at him. A few pregnant moment rolled past before the door swung open and an annoyed looking woman who was at least forty-five stared up at them. She took in Khan’s surprised and slightly heart-broken expression which prompted her to quickly yell at him in another language. His eyes went wide in surprise then he went back to looking sad as he shuffled inside the guild hall, his tail almost dragging on the ground. 

    “You two!” Both remaining mages jumped in surprise. “In.”

    Less than fifteen minutes later, Macao greeted them at the bar. Two cute twin faunus were working behind the bar, chatting, and smiling. Stiles slowly took in the twins ears. While the girl had cute and small floppy ears like a puppy, her brother had orange fox ears poking out of his unkept hair. Both of them made their way over to the group assembled at the end of the bar. 

    “Hello!” The boy greeted with a wide smile.

His sister was full on glaring at one of them.

    “Don’t worry, guys. These shrimps can’t drink yet.”

    It was funny how Macao said that because Cato was almost twice his size. A good four inches taller than him. Which annoyed the guild master to no end but he kept it to himself- With a guild filled with people who were typically as tall if not taller than him, he couldn’t show it. It was also really fun how he told everyone about how they couldn’t drink considering Cato was actually of age now and it was only Stiles that could not drink.

    “Alright…” The girl frowned and moved away. 

Her brother stood there and grinned, winking at the group, until his sister pulled him away by the ears.

    “What do you need help with?” The Grimm Faunus glanced over at them with a raised eyebrow.

    “The village a bit farther past the halfway point to Beacon.”

    “The what?”

    “Oh, kids. That hasn’t been there since I was a kid.”

    “But we passed through it!”

    “Then you are delusional.”

    Nose twitching and ears perked up, the barmaid listened to the conversation with a new interest. Didn’t they know? The Magic Council destroyed that village when it was found sheltering a bunch of Grimm Faunus, their mates, and their children. Poor Master Macao… He had to witness the entire massacre when he was only a few months older than five years. Cato must stop talking about it! Or it might trigger some of the master’s memories! The barmaid worried a bit too much about the guild master’s well being but she couldn’t help it because of the fact that he was like a father to her and her brother.

    “Haruka?”

    Kit was staring at her and frowning. Of course, her twin would know when something was wrong with her but it was surprising that she didn’t reek of worry. Did the rest of the guild take notice? Notice and not do anything to check on her? Assholes. The guild was filled with assholes that reeked of testosterone and neediness. What were they even needy for? Whenever Haruka asked about it, Kit completely shut her down and she never tried again for a good two days.

    Nine hours later is when the pair started to get ready to leave to meet their team up for dinner. And after missing the lunch that they planned, they really need to go. But before they could they need to stumble through goodbyes with at least 98% of the guild. Which, of course, was a lot of people. Finally they got back to the guild’s master who had remained at the bar the entire time. 

    Haruka and Kit were behind the counter by him, whispering lowly to each other. Khan crouched down on the bar and watched two curiously. His tail was swinging back and forth behind him and he never took his gaze off of them.

    “Goodbye Master Macao,” the two said with smiles.

    “See ya, shrimps.”

    With that, the two turned and began to walk out of the guild hall while the guild went back to normal. Well, mostly normal. The little woman from earlier was standing in front of the door and scowling at them- What was her problem? Did she just not like people?

    “Here Cato!” The giant’s head snapped up. “Take this with you.”

    So much happened, it was hard to believe it was in for seconds. One guild member with arms as big as Cato’s head picked up Khan and chucked him at the pair. A shrill screech left the poor monkey faunus as he flew through the air and slammed right into the giant’s chest. That made both tumble to the ground with a large thud. Khan whined in discomfort as his tail was crushed underneath the giant. 

    Why would they bring a White Fang member to dinner with them? Much less a member of the White Fang that didn’t exactly get along with the two males of the group. Koda’s dislike for the faunus was ignited when he stole the poor mage’s wallet. Not to mention the fact that he giggled when he found out that it was covered in pink cats.

    “What are we supposed to do with him?!”

    Khan looked up from his game of tic-tac-toe once he heard a discussion about him start among the other three mages. Even though his name wasn’t said, he knew that it was about him. The three older mages worked on their own little thing, talking in quiet and hushed tones, while Stiles easily got along with the monkey.

    “What was that?” The dark haired faunus looked back at the healer.

    “It’s a tie. For the fourth time.”

    Easily dragged back to the game, he looked over the piece of paper filled with their games of tic-tac-toe. A frown tugged on his lips when he realized that the younger mage was right- It was their fourth game and forth tie. Despite that fact, he started to make another square for another game of tic-tac-toe. He wanted to win at least one game! Why was it so hard to win just one little game? Cato, Resa, and Koda were easily forgotten as the two began to play yet another game like the children that they were. While the other three were adults.  


	15. Chapter 15

“A  monkey?” Koda looked over at the faunus curiously as Khan’s tail flicked back and forth.

    “A monkey,” He confirmed with a shrug.

    The group was walking him to his house or back to the White Fang’s guild hall, whichever one was closer. Koda had quickly gotten curious while watching his friends talk to the creature… His curiosity only seemed to increase when he noticed the tail flicking back and forth. Seemingly unaware of anything to do with faunus and the way they work, he carefully grabbed the monkey’s tail. Khan froze, successful in his attempt not to jump out of his skin.

    “Whatcha doin?” He asked curiously and looked back at the older mage.

    “Your tail is weird…”

The faunus slowly began to smirk and his tail lashed around in the mage’s grip.

    “You know that holding my tail is like holding my hand?”

    A small sound of disgust escaped his lips as he quickly dropped the tail from his grip and actually rubbed his hands on his pants. The girls burst out into laughter after watching the event unfold. Cato pretended to miss the wide, hopeful smile sent his way. Did Khan really want him to laugh at that? Or be embarrassed about the fact that that is exactly what happened to him when he met the mischievous monkey?

    Did he find it funny? A bit. The monkey noticed the way that he stopped himself from laughing, deflating like a balloon. Why couldn’t he just laugh at his stupid jokes?! The girls did! 

    “Master Macao!” He brightened considerably when he noticed the older faunus. 

    “Hey bud!” The man grinned and allowed the monkey to rush over to him and crowd into his personal space. Like a puppy. 

    What kind of guild master would he be if he didn’t see his guild as family? His children. Despite the fact that there were people in the guild who were well older than him. But all the younger guild members were definitely his children-

    “I see you brought friends!” The master laughed as the other got closer. “He didn’t give you guys any trouble?”

    “Not at all,” Resa said with a smirk. “The boys might not agree…”

    “He was fine,” Koda and Cato said in unison. 

    “What do you think, Little One?”

    Stiles looked up in surprise at the use of the old nickname. A small smile tugged on her lips and she nodded, stating softly that he was fine. That simply prompted Khan into rushing over to her and rubbing their cheeks together. Something that he picked up from a few of the other faunus in the guild. 

    Forty minutes later, the group was finally back in their hotel room. The giant ended up carrying Stiles back halfway since she was so tired. Too young and inexperienced to keep up with the faunus they hung out with all day that day. Especially the monkey that came with them to dinner and seemed to like her most out of everyone.

    Not one word was spoken out loud. The team simply scattered and got ready to go to sleep. Rest was something that they rarely got in the last few days that that they were in the Kingdom of Beacon. Just a few hours of sleep every night. To the point that sometimes they fell asleep during the day and didn’t finish whatever they were doing. Which is one thing they all took advantage of in the Tickle War.

    “Stiles… Stiles… Little One, I can’t feel my leg.”

    That seemed to wake her quickly. Wide brown eyes stared into a pair of worried blue eyes. Little One. Macao had called her that in front of her three teammates and that seemed to be stuck with them. Since when did Stiles know Macao? And well enough that he had his own nickname for her… It was a simple nickname but held so much more to it. Koda was the one who insisted on finding out why and how, Cato just accidentally called her it to wake her up.

    “What did you call me?”

    “Little One…?”

    Cato wasn’t even sure if he should of asked that question or not. Would she be upset with him because of it? The young brunette frowned and stared at her lap silently for a good five minutes before getting up. Later he would apologize for what he just did- Even though he didn’t know what he just did. Did a nickname really make her that upset? Just calling her by that nickname once made her upset… As well as woke her up. 

    Nicknames weren’t a thing that the team typically did either. All of them, besides Koda, had a nickname though. Resa’s full name was Teresa but everyone started calling her Resa after a few months in the guild, Cato was called the Giant because his height, and Stiles was sometimes -rarely but sometimes- referred to as the Cub. None of them had a nickname beyond those so… When did Stiles suddenly become Little One?

    A better question would be when she got the nickname in the first place. Younger mages tended to travel outside the guild to islands or into the mountains between kingdoms. Never to another kingdom. Which meant that Macao came to their guild for something and gave her the nickname. Or, maybe, they met each other before Stiles was in the guild. That made a lot more sense to the giant then his other explanations.

    “You are overthinking it,” Koda chimed from across the room a few hours later. 

    He had a fun time watching the only other male rip his hair out for the past three hours but now it was just getting old. Enough was enough. Blue met blue as the two stared at each other for a good five minutes. A pregnant silence hung over their heads like a rain cloud. Finally, the older mage opened his mouth to respond  just to be cut off by the younger. Cato felt a strange need to try and strangle Koda since he kept talking. 

    “No excuses. You are overthinking it.”

    “Am not!”

    “Then why are you so defensive about this?”

    “I’m not!”

    Cato was quick to act like he wasn’t bothered by the younger mage in the least bit. In turn, Koda just gave him an unimpressed look and stood up to go to the balcony. A move that made his teammate a bit uneasy for some reason. 

    “You are overthinking it!” He called over his shoulder with a roll of his eyes. 

    “How do you know? I could be thinking about it just the right amount!” The giant shot back and crossed his arms. 

    “You literally pulled a bunch of your hair out less than an hour ago. It was gross.”

The giant frowned and rubbed his head where the pain throbbed the most.

    “That means that you are overthinking it.”

    Before anything else could be said, Resa walked into the room and glanced around. A deep frown was placed on her lips when she realized what she was looking for was not in the room. It was just the boys who looked ready to rip each others throats out. Unfortunate to say the least. They were actually getting on better than they had been at their guild hall and on the mission that had brought them to the Kingdom of Beacon.

    “Have you seen Stiles?” She asked and crossed her arms.

    “No.” They said in unison but then glared at each other.

    “Then help me look for her!” Resa said using her authoritative, ‘I am the leader and you shall obey me’ voice.

Something that the entire team seemed to be scared of.  Both boys were starting to hate that voice with a burning passion even though they listened to her anyway.

    “What did you do?!” The second youngest was already half-way through the door and glaring at the older boy.

    “What?” Now the leader was looking at him too.

    “I called her Little One,” the giant grumbled and glared at the back of his teammates head.

    “What?!” She shrieked, obviously displeased with him. 

    For a good reason too. It had taken hours of the Master beggin Macao to get him to stop using that nickname around the young healer. Once upon a time, the nickname hadn’t been a bad thing. But now? It had some strong emotional ties to it. And bad ones at that.

    No one knew why and no one was going to find out! Just because the young healer didn’t want anyone to know and it was her business- Not theirs! Cato was an idiot for calling her that name, that was for sure. He didn’t know what it meant or any of the emotional stuff. When they got back, even Gwen would scold him for it if she ever found about what he did.

    “We have to find her!” Koda panted as he stumbled down the road. Even though the other two didn’t really know why he was so desperate to find her.

    Running around blindly in a kingdom he barely knew wouldn’t help at all. The team didn’t need him getting lost too! It might have been a little detour but he had managed to not get lost on the way there! Macao had been glad to send a team or two to go look for the young mage. And why not send Khan along to? He seemed to be able to find things that no one else could! The talent might of come from all the mischief and mayhem he caused where he had to hide from others which was a lot more than anyone could think. His favorite kind of pranks were done that way… Like Stiles!

    She loved hiding! Or at least making the guild look for her back home. It was actually a frequent thing that she did. Cato should have figured that out rather quickly but he didn’t- Instead he ran around town, asking people if they saw the little healer, and directions for any good hiding places. Let’s just say that a lot of people looked at him like he was a crazy person. Where could she have gone?! Hopefully the White Fang would find her before anything bad happened.

And hopefully before Resa killed Cato for losing her.


	16. Chapter 16

“She doesn’t even know her way around!” A bird faunus shouted as he landed on the roof, glancing around in search of the missing mage. 

    “That is why we must find her!” An ice mage moved through the street below.

    Many people protested when they were shoved this way and that by various mages and faunus who were running through the streets of the city. Only a few physically did something about it which typically ended up with them on their butts or frozen to something. This was no time to start a street fight! Especially if it was against a citizen since Macao would bite their heads off if they hurt anyone who was defenseless. 

    “If Resa doesn’t kill you then I’ll do it myself!” Koda all but hissed out to his guild mate.

    “You’ll have to get in line.” The giant gave a small nod as he continued moving through the crowd.

    A lot of people from the White Fang guild seemed eager to strangle or punch him because of this. Beacon was a peaceful kingdom where the majority of people were nice and the mages were good but there were a few who… Who just weren’t. And if they weren’t on the good side then they were full blown evil and typically kept away from society. Just a matter of time before they tried to come back into society. People lived in fear of that day coming but the White Fang were there to protect them! It was their sworn duty to protect the kingdom and its people at all cost.

    Woods bordered the kingdom on every side before being cut off by the kingdom’s wall. Some of the animals and whatever else still remained in the woods and they somehow kept alive all through the years. Even without attacking any of the kingdom’s people. Typically unheard of everywhere else but around Beacon which led people to wonder if the predators were still alive out there.

    In school children were taught that they would be eaten instantly after stepping into those woods. Teachers drilled fear into them until they almost couldn’t take it anymore! Some of the older and more daring -stupid- students actually tried to camp out in the woods and the results were nasty. Even though there was some people who had lived in the woods for years without getting eaten. It seemed that whenever they started to get cocky about their survival skills, they were killed or just up and disappeared. Probably eaten by some monster anyway.

    Monkey’s senses of smell probably weren’t as good as a lot of other animals. Especially the predatory ones. And Khan wasn’t good at tracking at all- He always left that to the wolves and the dogs… Now it seemed like they were depending on him to find her. Him!

    Khan took his search where no one dared to go and moved close to the woods. Stiles had to be in there somewhere! He refused to go home empty handed especially when it was something as important as a young mage. She was only fifteen for the love of magic! It would be terrible if she was eaten by some Grimm monster in the woods. 

    The entire guild would hate them if they let Stiles die in some different kingdom and not even on a mission. No! She was going to die because her best friend made her run away. If only he hadn’t tried out that stupid nickname then she would be there with them right now. Happy and calm as always. And completely not upset with the giant for calling her that nickname. 

    “On the bright side-” Someone spoke quietly in the White Fang guild hall. “No matter how this plays out… We can use it as a learning tool.”

    “How?” Hikaru asked from across the room.

-No one had any idea what kind of faunus he was-

    “They can know about triggers and stuff. They should know not to talk about the obvious ones like rape and blood but triggers can be anything.”

    “Yeah, yeah. They make people freak out when mentioned and I respect that but some are so stupid with theirs.”

Both the girl and Hikaru glared at the male who had suddenly interjected.

    “I didn’t know people needed you to think it was a real trigger warning to validate their experiences!”

    “Trigger warnings?” The guy snorted in amusement. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”

    “Enough!” Macao’s harsh voice quickly cut through the argument and made them all shut up.

    A hush fell over the guild as Macao made his way over to the three of them. His gaze was dark but still annoyed- Sometimes the Grimm Faunus felt like he should try to put them in time outs. If he was going to do that then he would have to listen to all of them squawk about how they weren’t children anymore. So it was probably a good thing that he hadn’t taken action on that idea. As much as he wanted to-

    Wide amber eyes met his gaze while the other two looked away from him. Hikaru always tried to be someone who met his problems head on. Even when he got in trouble. The young faunus actually freaked a lot of people out because he always was looking, staring at them. Macao found that fact slightly amusing.

    “Stop bickering,” he said sternly. “And Hunter-” The young male looked up. “Triggers warnings are not stupid. You would warn me if any of you were going to talk about the slaughter of my family and friends, correct?”

    Dozens of eyes widened at that and they all stared at the man for a long, silent second. No one thought that their guild master could need something like a warning to be told about anything. Even if the guild avoided talking about the whole Grimm Faunus slaughtering. Did he know they constantly spoke about it when he had his back turned?!

    Macao always seemed fine when other people mentioned that point in history so no one had a clue that he had any discomfort about the subject. Well, more than the obvious discomfort. Though the guild was never around him long enough after that to see if it did anything to him- Mentally. Maybe that was why they all rushed to get out of that situation. They were subconsciously afraid of what would happen if the guild master snapped.

    “No.” Hunter finally answered the question after a long moment of silence.

    “Good. Now stick to your own conversations.”

It was more of an order than anything else.

    “How about we all talk about happy stuff?” Hikaru suggested slowly. “To get everyone’s mind off the bad stuff.”

    Everything that had been going on. Stiles running away from her friends was just the tip of the iceberg, to be honest. The White Fang had been through a lot in the past few months and they all tried to keep it together. But now some poor girl from another guild was missing-

    Was it even considered missing if it had been less than twenty-four hours? Would any officials help look for her? Wasn’t that what the guards around the kingdom were for?! The majority of the guild thought of them as useless yellow bellies. If they didn’t get up off their asses and do stuff they would probably suck in every battle they went into. 


	17. Chapter 17

Amethyst , Adam, and Samira had finally finished their mission and collected the reward. Now they just had to get back to the kingdom and their guild- But no. Adam convinced them all to stop at the Kingdom of Beacon before they went home. What was in this kingdom? The girls didn’t understand why he wanted to go there so badly. Not until they saw  _who_ Adam wanted to see so badly.

    Her name was Emma and her blonde hair and jade green eyes along with her slightly colored skin made her stand out for various reasons. Mostly because the majority of the people in the kingdom were pale skinned and dark haired with either blue or grey eyes. It wasn’t uncommon to find someone with darker skin but it was a bit strange when everyone surrounding you didn’t have your skin tone. But they quickly found out how socially awkward she was which somehow turned her from hot goddess into a precious baby angel. If her brother hadn’t shown interest in her, Amethyst would probably be trying to flirt with the poor girl.

    “Some mages from your guild are here in the kingdom,” the girl said and smiled politely at the girls. But when she looked at Adam her smile lit up and her eyes sparkled.

    “Really?” Adam’s eyes widened in surprise at the news. “Do you know why they are here?” 

    “No, sorry.”

    “It’s okay. Hey! Maybe we can find them and travel back together!”

    Right. All they had to do was visit the guild here then find the other mages. Hopefully they could kill two birds with one stone and find the mages with the White Fang. Which did happen. But not the way they thought of.

    “Stiles!”

    Dozens upon dozens of eyes watched as a faunus carried a struggling girl over towards where Amethyst and Adam stood. A tail lashed around behind him as he held onto her tightly and tried not to snap at her in his state. Annoyed, frustrated, and tired. Emma’s eyes widened as the girl’s hands flashed and the faunus let out a sharp cry of surprised pain.

    “Ow! Ow! Ow! God dammit!” He screamed out and would later apologize to all the children and some of the parents for his language. “What was that for?!”

    Khan had all but flung Stiles into a chair and her eyes widened as she realized what she just did to him. It was a rare thing for the healer to use any defensive magic especially on another person. She felt horrible for the fact that she had hurt him even if it was just a little shock. Though she shrunk back when she noticed the three familiar mages only a few feet away. Oh god- Would they tell the Master on her? She knew that when they got back he was still going to be upset with her and Cato for what they did before the mission. She was going to be in so much trouble when she returns to the guild!

    “You scared me,” she said weakly.

    “And that gives you the right to zap me?” The monkey was still rubbing his back.

    “Yeah… Technically.”

    Her three guild mates surrounded her while Khan contacted the guild and told them where they were. It was silent for a second then dozens of White Fang guild members seemed to start appearing out of nowhere. Some even dropped out of the sky!

    “What happened?” Emma asked with a small frown as they approached.

    “She went missing for the entire day.” A bird faunus supplied an answer to the girl’s question and looked at the new mages. “You four are from the same guild?”

    “We are,” Samira confirmed and stepped closer.

    “If Stiles is here then where is the rest of her team?” Adam asked with deep concern laced in his voice.

    As if to answer, a scream of Stiles name was heard through the crowd. Only a second later the young healer was swooped into a hug. It was a little awkward too because Resa’s and Cato’s height difference- Stiles cuddled into the embrace despite that fact and smiled widely. She resembled a kitten finding a warm spot to lay down and rest while the whole world went on around her. An awkward silence settled over the crowd as they waited for the trio to separate. Not that that mattered because once she was set down, a hand fell on top of her head and ruffled her hair. Everyone fell silent as the young mage stared up at her new team mate in surprise. She knew that Cato and Resa were probably worried about her but she hadn’t expected the newest member of their team to even care that she was gone. 

    “You had me worried, Dormouse,” he said with a small smile.

    That surprised his twin, who he didn’t know was there and watching him in that moment. If he had known then he probably wouldn’t have said the nickname out loud or even touched her in any affectionate way. But Stiles seemed happy to hear the name even if she didn’t like it. The young healed stood on her toes to hug him with a small smile.

    “Don’t call me that ever again,” she instructed once she pulled away from the embrace that she had trapped her new teammate in.

The older mage took a moment to act like he was thinking before grinning down at the girl.

    “No.”


	18. Chapter 18

White Fang guild hall went crazy once the mages had returned. Yet Koda still didn’t seem to notice his sister and was instead watching his new little team like something bad was going to happen and he was going to have to swoop in and save the day. Even if he wasn’t near them or talking to them, he kept a watchful eye on them which included Cato. Every so often he would smile or stiffened, at the ready to force anyone who had upset his team away from them. He was even doing it to the giant one who could clearly take care of himself. But it was like Koda was a pitbull which would make sense because now he felt comfortable around the team, for the most part.

    Samira took joy in watching her brother be this close to people, acting like a guard dog to them, and smiling just because they were smiling. It was a nice change. She was happy that he seemed so happy with them and like they were his actual friends. No pretending to like him from the team like a few other people had in the past. They seemed to genuinely like him. Which was good because they did not need a repeat of what happened between him and Simon. Especially to such nice people!

    What happened between Koda and Simon was classified deep within their family and despite the fact that she was there for some of it, and Koda’s twin sister, she didn’t know completely what happened. All she knew was that it was horrible. For once in his life, it was not Koda’s fault for a fight. But at the same time it wasn’t Simon’s fault either. Not completely. Though it was easier for the family full of mages to say that it was all his fault or Koda’s fault and it deferred from person to person who they believed was the one to start it. And to cause all that destruction that the fight had resulted in.

    “Hey, Sammy.” Amethyst was grinning ear to ear as she said that nickname that she had given her teammate sometime during their mission. Maybe even before they got to their actual mission and when Samira chose them as the team she was going with. “Why aren’t you talking to your twin?”

Luckily, this time she didn’t question the girl about why they looked so different when they were supposed to be as identical as possible according to their parents.

    “I’m watching him-”

    “Stalker.”

Samira left out an annoyed huff and stared at the leader of her team.

    “No! I’m just making sure he’s doing okay!” Because no one could understand just how much the younger twin needed to be okay at this point. How much he deserved it. The girls both turned to look at where the twin was bickering with the monkey faunus about types of magic. Of course, being the gross older twin she was, Samira grinned widely and watched her younger siblings for a good five minutes.

    “I am sorry but you are stalking him.”

    “Amethyst. I am  _not_ stalking my own brother.”

    “Samira. I am sorry but you are.”

There was a pregnant pause between them,

    “He seems fine to me. Really happy.”

    “Yeah… I haven’t seen him like this in a while.”

In a while meant since they were little kids. Around the ages of three to eight years old. 

    Just as Khan was about to win the argument over which type of maker magic was harder, someone announced the time. Half past midnight. They were going to leave tomorrow to head back over to their own kingdom so they needed all the beauty sleep that they could get. Maybe take a day or two to investigate the village while they were making their way back to their own kingdom. Since the Magic Council didn’t seem to keen on getting back to them about that matter.

    Not to mention the fact that that village was supposed to be destroyed and turned to dust ever since Master Macao was a boy. That didn’t make sense to them. Everyone who traveled between kingdoms knew about the village and talked about it so why didn’t anyone realize what was going on? 

    “Fight me,” Stiles said weakly though she allowed her friend to pick her up since she was far too tired to walk all the way back to the hotel.

    “You’re too tired,” he said with a small laugh as he made sure that she was cozy in his arms.

    “Fight me,” She said but yawned before she could even finish with what she was saying. Her nose scrunched up when she yawned.

    “Cato! Hurry up!”

    The giant sighed softly and followed the team leader out. In a matter of second, Stiles was completely, fast asleep and leaning heavily against Cato. No one said a word once they got back to the hotel. Just went to their own beds and went to sleep. (Of course Cato put Stiles in her bed and tucked her in then said goodnight. What kind of friend would he be if he didn’t?) Everyone slept like babies. Exhausted from searching for Stiles the entire day and simply exhausted from being around the kingdom’s guild that was filled with such energetic and interesting people. 

    Resa didn’t seem to keen to get up early- Despite the fact that leaving early was her idea so they would have more time to check on the village. If the village was still there because they could have been hallucinating. Or some wizard could have made the illusion to trick them for some reason. That thought was dismissed when they all remembered that Koda’s grandfather said that the Magic Council knew about the village. A dark cloud seemed to hang over Resa as she got ready and everyone knew that it wouldn’t go away until she was somehow able to take a nap.

    It was easy to tell that the team leader did not like early mornings or she did not like early mornings after an exhausting day before where they didn’t go to bed until midnight. Maybe she would try to bite off someone’s head on their journey back to their own kingdom. The other members of her team hoped that there was somewhere where she could take a nap. Koda actually volunteered to carry her so she could sleep part of the way but, of course, she declined because it would be a bit weird having him carry her. They would avoid that at all cost. Cato would have volunteered but he was too afraid of a cranky Resa to even raise his voice while talking to her so him and Stiles just avoided her until they were completely ready to leave. 

    Maybe they could convince someone to lend them a cart or something that she could sleep in. And maybe Stiles would join her in her little nap since she was also very tired despite the fact that she got the most sleep out of any of them. 

    This time it was going to be the White Fang walking the trail with them until they got to the train station where they would get to sit in silence for a comfortable few hours. Sleep a bit more after the exhausting trip. Some people from another guild would be a lot better than the snobby rich people that they had traveled with before and the entire team thanked whatever God or gods that were out there. Maybe they could actually talk to the other guild members instead of being bossed around as they walked.  And maybe the other guild would know what to do in the village despite the fact that they didn’t believe the team about the village being their. They believed Master Macao who said the village was long gone. 

    With Resa asleep in the back of the cart, they set out on the way to the train station that was on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Lavender. Now that they were reunited, the twins mostly stayed next to each other. Like two toys connecting two different sets of toys. But in this case it was Amethyst’s team and Resa’s team. So maybe having the twins with them was a good thing!

    Koda and Samira spoke about their missions to each other. His sister was interested to learn about how Pakku acted toward him and his team and then she told him about all the disgusting men that had been at the festival for the Kingdom of Lavender. But she said nothing about how she had watched him amongst his team for the entire time they were at the White Fang’s guild hall. 

    “So… You and Emma,” Mercutio, a water mage, asked with a grin.

    “You know Emma?!” Adam asked as his eyes went as wide as saucers, staring up at the new mage.

    “Yeah. She is my younger cousin!” The water mage laughed while Adam suddenly felt nervous. He was talking to a part of Emma’s family!

    “Emma was cute! I think she likes you,” Amethyst chimed in and swung an arm around her brother’s shoulders. 

    “She is amazing!” The younger said looking like he had hearts in his eyes, a small taking up a good portion of his face.

Whenever they went into the Kingdom of Beacon, he would visit Emma. She was his best friend! Other than his sister, of course. But he didn’t really think his sister counted that much anymore being his sister and team leader and all. He also had Max but he didn’t feel as close to him as he did to Emma.


	19. Chapter 19

        Silencefell over the group as they neared the village without a name and finally the White Fang got to see that it was actually there and they weren’t delusional. Unless they were and there was some wizard behind this all! The village was the one thing that Resa had worried about the entire time they were in the kingdom. All the people disappeared! Not to mention the fact that the Magic Council knew about it! How could they not say anything to the guilds about a village that had been destroyed, came back, and was now disappearing again?! Knowing about it almost made Resa go mad.

Everyone chatted as they walked along the path that had been blazed long before they had been on earth. Drawing closer and closer to the village though they forgot about it rather quickly as they talked amongst themselves. Koda and Mercutio were arguing about what was better- Water or fire. The argument caught everyone’s attention pretty quick. Then it escalated because all the yelling and cheering woke up Resa. Then the terror truly began. 

In the lead, ignoring everyone else and their stupid arguments, was a certain monkey faunus. For once in his life he didn’t want to get into it with anyone- Just because he was usually competitive didn’t mean he had to be all the time. Though he probably should have looked down at his feet every once in a while as he walked along the trail. Or, at least, not stared at the sky like that.

With a terrified screech that sounded more animal than human -or faunus-, Khan grabbed onto the edge of the land that he just marched right off of. He didn’t want to fall into that dark bottomless pit below him. One look up freaked him out even more. Some part of the ground were disappearing or breaking off and falling into the pit! 

A pair of strong and warm calloused hands grabbed onto his tail to prevent him from falling in. Someone pulled him up and onto safe ground, quickly falling back towards the other mages. Khan let out a loud, painful squeak. It felt like the guy was trying to pull his tail off. Blinking slowly, carefully, the monkey looked up to see who had saved him. Hikaru? He quickly shot a glanced towards the land he walked off of and even more of it had disappeared in just a few short seconds. 

“We need to get to safe ground!”

Everyone turned their gaze towards the girl who had given them the orders. Samira was standing tall with her head held high as she gazed at everyone surrounding her. Okay, they all had to admit they were not expecting that. She looked like a general of some mighty army with how she was speaking and acting at this point. Amethyst and Adam were quick to snap into action at their teammate command. Even though Samira was the newest of the team, she quickly became to unannounced leader of it.

In a matter of minutes, they were away from the fading piece of land. They were trying to go around it while any flying or air mages were guiding them to somewhere safe where they wouldn’t fall into a bottomless pit. Hikaru was still carrying Khan despite the many protest to put him down and let him take care of himself. Which mainly came from the monkey himself. 

When Samira requested Hikaru’s help, he looked for someone to take the faunus from him and carry him. For some reason he thought Khan still needed to be carried like an infant! And in swooped his knight. His knight who was being an asshole to him but his knight none the less. Cato actually had to bend down to take the faunus from the other male due to his height. The monkey merely snorted in amusement because of that. The giant needed to shrink to make it easier for everyone else. 

“Put me down,” he mumbled after ten minutes of being carried by the stupid giant.

He would rather fall into a pit then be carried for one more step.

    “You almost fell into a bottomless pit.” Cato said though he sounded a bit bored with the monkey faunus and his whining. “And your heart is still beating like crazy. Not to mention that you’re clinging to my arm with your tail.”

    His eyes widened when the other mage said that. One glance at the giant’s arm confirmed it too. His tail was coiled tightly around his arm and the faunus had to wonder if Cato was uncomfortable with it. Personally, he just hoped that he didn’t cut off the poor guy’s blood circulation or anything.

    “Sorry,” he said and pulled his tail away. There was an imprint of his tail on the other mages arms.

    “You always do that when you’re scared.” If he wasn’t so embarrassed for almost cutting off his arm with his tail, Khan would have punched him.

    About fifteen minutes later and all the mages in the air landed on the ground, stretching, and curling their toes in their shoes. One faunus with large hawk wings showed the way to an abandoned train station. Hopefully they would be safe there and would be able to summon someone from the Magic Council to come help them. Then they would  _have_ to deal with the problem.

    “Koda! Take your team and search the east side. Khan, you take a team and search the west side so we know this place is clear.”

She was still scary and like a commander of an army.

    Samira was simply really scary while giving orders like that. It was a very serious matter after all! But they listened and went to make sure that everything was clear. Cato had a few imprints on his arm that were still there from earlier when Khan’s tail almost squeezed his arm until it fell off. Though no one really knew what the marks were from and he didn’t even answer anyone who asked him.

    On the other side of the train station, Khan had made his own little team. An ice mage, an air mage, a smoke mage, and an illusion mage. He thought they were a good choice for a team even if whenever one of them tried to talk they would just end up bickering. Correction, whenever one of two people tried to talk, the other one of the two would start bickering with them. He had to try and not laugh at half the stupid things that the little made up team had to say. Especially since three out of five were girls. Most of the time the other guy out of the team, Marvel, was being sexist and no women in the White Fang would stand for a man being sexist towards anyone. 

    “Stop being an asshole, you wimp!” One of the girls screamed at him, sounding completely pissed off.

    “How am I a wimp?!” Marvel shot back with a dark glare.

    “Because whenever I try to punch you, you run away!” She stomped her foot and the whole floor shook with the impact. 

    “Eh, be careful you guys!” Haruhi looked up from her spot with a small frown tugging on her lips as she looked at the two.

    “Then tell him to stop being such a sexist wimp! Power up and let me punch you!”

    Khan sighed and someone beside him echoed the sound which caused him to open his eyes in surprise. Standing next to him was the one and only illusions mage, Tyra. The girl didn’t seem to enjoy the bickering especially because they were on a  _search_ mission. If there was any enemies in this station, they probably heard them already.

    “Nora, please!” 

    Haruhi was trying desperately to calm the other down but the smoke mage was having none of it. Marvel had pissed her off and he had to pay! He could only run and hide for so long! Two pairs of eyes watched them, filled with curiosity, and they snorted at some of the things that the two were saying.

    “Quiet!” 

Tyra was almost as scary as Samira or Amethyst while giving orders. But not quite.

    All bickering stopped and they watched the illusion mage approach something, looking at the ground with furrowed eyebrows. And once she had some fire to clearly see, the frown only deepened. On the floor were dozens of sleeping mats and pillows. An extra blanket here and there in case whoever had gotten a bit too cold with just one blanket. They were the kind of things nomads used to go from place to place. Did that mean that someone camped here before? Where were they and what happened to them? Maybe they were lost somewhere deep within the station.

    “Ew… These are all old and dusty,” Marvel complained as he moved towards the sleeping mats only to shriek as he touched one. About six furry and fat rats scurried out of the mat and scattered in different directions. Nora practically died of laughter.

    “You’re- You’re afraid of little rats!” She cackled and held her sides which were starting to hurt from laughing so much.

    “Stop bickering. We are here on a serious mission,” Tyra spoke harshly and sent the two of them a glare that had them shut up pretty quick.

    The two of them shut up and stopped bickering pretty quick upon Tyra’s orders. For now. Khan was probably the fastest one out of the five of them so he was the one that had to go alert the group that was waiting outside of the station on what they had found. Not only did they have a disappearing village on their hands but an abandoned camp inside an abandoned train station! A perfect setup for some kind of horror story!

“You’re back already?” Adam asked with wide eyes once he saw Khan even though the monkey was struggling to catch his breath.

    “Is it clear? Where is the rest of your team?!” Samira asked and sounded surprisingly harsh towards him.

    “We found a camp but it’s abandoned- It looks like it had at least fifty people in that camp alone.” Maybe, somewhere, there was another camp. 

    “Wait- What if that was the villagers from the disappearing village?” Adam asked and his eyes widened even more at the thought of finding those people. 

    Once Koda and his team came back they would go look at what Khan and his team had found. If the villagers had been there then maybe they were still somewhere in the train station or somewhere in the mountains. Hopefully- But the other team wasn’t back yet. And time was ticking until the sun started to go down. 

    “Should we look for them?”

    “What if they’re in trouble?!”

Samira’s eyes widened at the thought of her twin brother in trouble. Even if he could take care of himself, she would like it if he wasn’t in some kind of life threatening danger.

    “I’ll take half to go with Khan and Amethyst will take the other to search for the missing team.”

Were they even considered missing yet? It had only been a little over half an hour.


	20. Chapter 20

  Soft pink fur caressed her face and she slowly blinked her eyes open to look at the room around her. Natsu was staring down at her with clear, green eyes, a bit fluffed up due to the fact that he did _not_ like her. But that didn’t really matter to her because he was just a stupid little cat. Raphael cared about her and that was all that she cared about. Not some bratty feline’s opinion on her. Where was Raphael anyway? 

    Please don’t be gone, the woman thought as she forced herself up and out of bed so she could get ready to go look for him. She clipped her copper brown-red hair back and looked at herself in the mirror for a long minute, turning her face from side to side as she did so. Nice. Just fix these a bit and make herself appear to be a bit more… Ruffled than she actually as. 

Now she could go look for him.

    The cat was at her heels the entire time as she walked down the stairs to the kitchen. But once she got to the bottom stair, the feline zipped past her, and hid under one of the stools at the counter. The young woman let out a relieved sigh when she saw Raphael was there and making breakfast while humming along to a tune inside his head.

    “Sleep well?” He asked without even turning around to check and see who it was.

    “As well as I could while still thinking about last night,” she responded with a small smirk and settled herself in one of the stools.

A light blush dusted his cheeks because of that little comment that she made but he focused on making them breakfast.

    “Doll’s not coming home today?” She asked and sipped the coffee that was put before her as she stared intently at the man.

    “Her job isn’t going as she expected,” he said with his grip tightening on the handle of the pan.

    “I just can’t believe that she went through with it- Being pregnant with the first child and all.”

    “I told her not to do it,” he said weakly and stared at the flame before him. For a second it looked like he was contemplating something but then it was gone. Somewhere behind him, the cat meowed.

    “But you guys have to pay the bills somehow, Raph. With you being retired and all- But I’m sure Iroh would be happy to help you and Doll.”

    Raphael snorted and flipped the eggs onto a plate then placed it in front of her with a bit more force than he had originally intended. The smile on his face was genuine but seemed to be a little bit forced. After all, he was thinking about his very beautiful, very  _pregnant_ fiancee, out fighting dark guilds. While he sat at home with another woman. 

    “Just remember that she was the reason you weren’t arrested.”

Ouch. That brought up memories.

    “Yes. A heroic little fourteen year old.” She rolled her eyes and fought the urge to say something nasty to add to it.

    “Just like you,” Raphael teased with a heartwarming smile and she stopped. He fed Natsu then stood back up and went to the stove to make something for himself to eat.

    “I was powerful and feared across the world,” she corrected with a small pout as she took another sip of her coffee. 

    Natsu stared at her as he ate his food, eyes only moving towards Raphael to make sure that he was okay, then landing back at the woman. You could clearly see the distrust in his eyes. She had an evil glint in her eye as she looked away from him and back towards his master.

    And the feline would be damned if she ever hurt another part of his family ever again. Could he claw her eyes out? He might be able to do that- Maybe while she is sleeping over yet another night before Doll comes home. If Raphael left them alone long enough for him to do that. 

She moaned happily at the taste of her breakfast and looked over at him with a smile.

    “You have a gift, Raphael.”

    “Why thank you, Mitsuki.”


	21. Chapter 21

 Marvel kept screaming because Nora and her new game which was to kick a mattress and send a bunch of rats scurrying out towards him. She also directed all the rats towards him which resulted in the young man running around the room to avoid the creatures. Haruhi tried to get them to stop so they wouldn’t get in trouble again. Tyra alone was scary but now Samira was here too.

Why must they keep acting like stubborn children?

    Someone had laughed and said it was like a schoolyard crush with the two of them. Where they were mean to each other because they secretly liked each other and wanted to kiss in secret. Almost the entire group burst into fits of laughter once the man said that, maybe even some of the guild members with Amethyst sensed it and laughed too. Not only was the idea of Marvel and Nora wrong and disgusting but Nora already had a significant other. It was a surprise that they didn’t know that.

    “Who is he then?” The person who had suggested the two bickering had a crush on each other asked and sounded annoyed.

Then, as if to respond to the question, Nora pulled Haruhi into a kiss. Oh, it was not a he. It was a she. Now that he had time to think about it it made a lot more sense.

Nora enjoyed the fact that she could kiss Haruhi and people would freak out because they ‘didn’t know that she was into girls’ and they thought that she liked boys. It felt like she was crushing their dreams of setting her up with a bunch of boring guys which they sort of were which brought even more joy to the girl. But it was slightly annoying. How everyone thought that every boy liked girls and every girl liked boys unless they were proven otherwise. It was okay for people to guess her sexuality and try to set her up but if she, or anyone, did that to the people who do it to her they would freak out. They would also probably yell about how they don’t like the same gender and how the other gender was great. She wanted to punch those people so bad! It also annoyed her how if people who liked the opposite gender had their sexuality guessed and it was guessed wrong then they got to me mean. Rude, actually. She couldn’t do that without being called a bitch. 

“How is it going to work out on missions?” The mage asked but now he was looking at Khan like it was any of his business.

“What?” The monkey turned his gaze away from Samira and Tyra talking to look at the man who was talking to him.

“The girls dating,” he whispered as if he didn’t want anyone to hear them. As if he had some big secret that he couldn’t let out.

“Same way you and Rin deal with it.”

Khan turned his attention back to the two leader-figures that were still talking quietly amongst each other. What were they looking for exactly? Maybe he could help! Samira poked around the campsite. No one really knew what to look for but the girls seemed set on finding something that could lead them to where the people were. 

“Could it be the villagers?” Marvel asked after a few pregnant moments of silence and looked over at Samira. 

“I don’t think so,” Haruhi responded before anyone else could even open their mouths which made the entire group turn towards her in surprise. “At least not all of them.”


	22. Chapter 22

 Somewhere on the other side of the abandoned station, Resa and her team were doing as instructed of them. Or at least that’s what the group looking for the team hoped that they were doing. Amethyst and the group searched feverishly for them. Now they knew that something might be really, really, really wrong. There might even be something in the station that was causing some sort of mayhem for anything around. Some kind of threat to any guild members.

“Cato! We found you!” Adam cheered with a wide smile and rushed forward.

Before he could take another step to try and run over and hug his fellow guild member, his sister grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back behind her. She was in a defensive stance too. Cato was making small little movements- Short little jerky movements. He was twitching while he slumped against the wall and the rest of his team was nowhere to be seen. In that moment it became apparent to the large search party group- No splitting up. 

“What’s wrong with him?” One White Fang member whispered softly as they all gazed at the boy who was slumped against a wall.

“I don’t know.” Amethyst said and pulled her spear from her back as she kept a close eye on the twitching form.

All the White Fang members stared at her in surprise because of her defensive nature in this situation. She used the blunt end of the spear to nudge the male’s body a couple of times and everyone seemed to hold their breath. After a few jabs, he gave one big jerk and fell over. 

“Cato!”

Amethyst pulled Adam back by the collar again as he tried, again, to rush forward to help his fellow mage. 

“He’s hurt!” The boy shouted in protest and tried desperately to go help his friend.

But Adam’s sister ignored him for the time being and easily held him where he was with one hand while examining their surroundings. From what they could see, Cato was the only one out of his team that was currently among them. Even if he was injured. That meant that the rest of the team was somewhere else in the train station and they could be injured too! Just the thought of his friends being hurt or in danger upset Adam.

“We need a team to stay here and take care of him. The rest will come with me and look for the others.”

So long for no splitting up.

    It didn’t take long for a team to come forward and volunteer to stay with the wounded mage once they were instructed on a few ways that may help him. The rest of the group soldiered on in search for Resa and the other two who could be who knows where in the large, run down building. Would they be hurt too?! Their fellow mages prayed for their safety as the rushed through the station in search of the girls and boy. 

    No more splitting up! Amethyst prayed for no more situations where they would have to split up to go on and finish looking for the others. That was going to be the number one rule even though they had already broken it once already with the team of mages that they had left back with Cato. Everyone thought that she would have been the last found if not the one who came through unbroken out of all of this. With or without the monster- It really didn’t matter to her if she got a trophy or not. As long as she defeated the monster. But no. she was the second one to be found knocked out and slumped against a wall.

    Resa was in the same state as her second in command when they found him though she might be a bit worse then him. Knocked out and twitching, the only living or moving thing in the entire hallway that the group could see. She was actually a bit scratched up and bruised too. Bits and pieces of her clothes were tattered. The leader frowned at that. Whether she looked the part or not, Resa was a mage that you did not want to mess with. If she was like this… Then what would the others be like when they found them? If they even found them. Not to mention the fact that they also needed to find the people who had left their camp in the part of the station Samira was in. No one knew where any of them could be- 

    Another team was left behind with Resa like the first team had done with Cato and the no splitting up rule was broken was again. Hopefully whatever had done that to the two mages hadn’t gone back that way and run into the now separated teams. The two teams that were with the mages were powerful and will protect them no matter what! I hope, Adam thought to himself.

    “Stiles!”

    She didn’t have time to stop him as her brother launched himself at the girl standing before them. Though his excitement was turned into concern when the girl collapsed once he made the slightest contact with her. What was he thinking?! Jumping on her like that! Adam knelt down with the little healer in his lap and she slumped against him, looking completely exhausted but other than that there didn’t seem to be anything wrong. 

    “How did she make it farther than the other two? And how is she still standing?!”

It was a mystery to every one of them.

    Despite the yelling from the rest of the group, the young mage shrugged off his jacket. Then he wrapped it around Stiles to keep her warm and comforted because, judging by the looks of the other two, she needed to be comforted. Or at least make her feel a little bit more comforted than she currently felt.

    “Where is Koda?”


	23. Chapter 23

Everyone  was surprised when they heard those words as the first words out of the young healer’s mouth in her completely rattled and exhausted state. She didn’t seem to be as worried about the other two teammates that she had despite the fact that they were her best friends. Whatever was going on must be affecting her too then! It must be affecting her a lot if she doesn’t seem to care about Cato or Resa. 

    “We don’t know,” Adam told her softly and put a hand on top of her head in some way of comforting her a bit more.  “But we did find Cato and Resa in the hallways we went through.”

A little, relieved smile came to the girl’s lips when she heard that. Maybe she does still care about them after all.

    “Are they okay?”

    “More or less. I don’t know, to be honest. Maybe you can take a look at them once we go back there.”

The glare directed at Amethyst from her little brother was enough to make a grown man cry but she just shrugged her shoulders. Her brother’s glares barely affected her at this point in their lives especially when they were in the heat of battle or mystery. Which is exactly what this was becoming. On her orders, about half of the remaining part of the group brushed past them and disappeared further into the station.. Everyone was on guard now and ready to fight if any threat presented itself. But then again they had no clue what that threat was or how they were supposed to fight it. They would figure something out- They were mages from the White Fang!

“White Fang?” Stiles eyes widened and she tried to sit up in Adam’s lap. “Where is Macao?! I need to talk to him!”

“Easy!” Amethyst commanded as her little brother made the healer lay back down and rest for a bit longer. “Master Macao is not with us.”

Maybe if he was this whole thing wouldn’t be as freaky as the mages found it to be. Since he was a Grimm Faunus then he would be able to know what the threat was pretty quick… Right? And he would be able to keep everyone calm and stop them from panicking as they thought about whatever was doing this.

But he wasn’t with them. He was back in Beacon and had no clue that about half of his guild might die.

    Just as the healer opened her mouth to say something to the two of them, there was a shout from further into the station. The White Fang mages that they had sent ahead of them? Where they in some kind of trouble? The rest of the group rushed forward to help what they thought would be their guild members being attacked and, technically, all of them were right. But only half of what they thought was happening was right.

    The group was in trouble but it was not them who had been shouting and making all the noise that had attracted the rest of the mages in the first place. A familiar figure was standing in the middle of the room, slightly lower than the rest of the room, where the floor dipped. Like his teammates that had been found previously, he was twitching but unlike the rest of them he seemed completely fine. Red electricity crackled around him and on him but he made no movement or sign that it was hurting him. Or physically damaging his form at all. Something else was off about him… But no one could exactly put their finger on it or get close enough to see what it was.

    At the sound of more footsteps coming their way, everyone turned their attention towards one of the entry ways that was found around the room. Despite what many people thought, it was Adam who came rushing out of the passageway and into the room. The boy was quick to read the situation and skidded to a halt just in front of the edge where the ground suddenly dropped to create the dip in the floor. 

    “Koda?” The young mage sounded surprised and completely confused as he gazed at the other mage. 

    Koda only smiled and raised his hand in the direction of the younger mage, electricity coursing around him. Being a water mage only seemed to amplify the pan of being electrocuted. Smoke rose from the younger mages form as he was knocked out and fell to the floor- First to his knees then he teetered for a moment before falling onto his chest. 

    Red colored electricity crackled around the boy’s body as he laid there, completely motionless, while his sister stumbled out of the tunnel. Surprisingly, she was leaned against Stiles who still didn’t seem to have any injures, inside or out. If he was there Kit would have made a comment on how suspicious that was just to raise suspicion and watch drama unfold. He just knew how to play his guild mates. 


	24. Chapter 24

 “Adam!” It sounded like a desperate screech of some mother animal who had just witnessed their children being beat to death. “Is he okay?!”

    “Calm down, breathe.” Stiles tried to keep her voice calm and soothing as she started to kneel down by the boy’s body. 

    “I can’t lose him!” The older mage cried with tears streaming down her face like waterfalls, soaking her cheeks as she cried. She didn’t look the same as the women who could crush any monster with her pinkie finger. 

    “You won’t-” The healer sounded calm and soothing as she spoke. Until a gasp escaped her as Amethyst grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her closer so their faces were a mere inches apart. 

    “Tell me who did this-  _What_ did this!” The powerful mage fumed and she looked like she was turning red.

    “A-Amethyst- You’re hurting me.” Stiles choked out desperately and tried to wiggle out of the girl’s grip.

    “What did this to my little brother?!”

    Saliva flung from her mouth and landed on the young healer’s face which made her flinch away and try to turn her head. Even if that seemed impossible due to the fact that Amethyst was holding her by the shirt and almost choking her with it. That seemed to infuriate the powerful mage in front of her. Everyone in the guild had seen Amethyst fight angry and she could take down just about anyone or anything in less than five minutes. But this was her only living and breathing family. Who might be dead at their feet. Stiles didn’t even want to think about what would happen if Adam truly did die and the destruction that his sister would cause because of it. Now all she needed was for her fellow guild member to say what was responsible for these horrible injuries that all the mages seemed to have.

It couldn’t be a who.

    No person in their right mind could take down three powerful mages and then make some of the other mages that came to attack it simply disappear. What had enough power to even do that?! The girls couldn’t think of anything in either of their experiences that could come close to doing that. But they needed to know. Even if they didn’t end up fighting whatever the thing was.

    “Tell me!” The older girl screeched and the younger girl flinched away from the loud, booming yell and the salvia that flung off her lips. “It needs to pay for what it did to my brother!”

    “The Master says vengeance can blind a person. Please don’t let yourself be one of those people that the Master is talking about.”

    “I don’t care! The Master says a load of crap that everyone always believes because he is the master of our guild. Just shut up! Just-” Her voice lowered at that point and the waterfall of tears started again as she lowered her gaze. “Just make sure my little brother isn’t dead.”

    Adam wasn’t dead- Just fried a little bit. And that was meant in the most literal sense that you could think of besides frying your body, of course. Stiles used a bit of magic but the injury could still have a lasting affect on him due to the harshness of it and the fact that they hadn’t found him right away. Nothing that they couldn’t help him work through.

    But they didn’t know where the others had gone or what had happened to them at all. And to be completely honest… When was three people at an abandoned train station with some deadly monster thing that could easily kill them good? It was truly a plot for some kind for horror movie. Amethyst was going to carry her brother and they walked farther and farther into the train station. Hopefully they would run into the others who could help them!

    On the other side of the station, no one really seemed to know what was going on or why it was happening. They heard screaming and a bunch of other things that they hadn’t been able to identify before it suddenly stopped. Samira quickly became worried about her brother and his team. Of course, she was worried about her team and all the members of the White Fang that were currently with her team. But her brother was in some kind of serious trouble! She could just feel it in her gut!

    “What should we do?!” Marvel asked while sounding very panicked which didn’t help Samira’s current state of mind. 

    “Stay calm!” She spat out and glared at the group in front of her as they seemed to be freaking out even more and more. 

    Nora whacked her team mate on the back of the head for her but other than that they did not antagonize each other again. The whole room seemed to have gone silent as they waited for orders on what to do or where to go to keep safe. If they didn’t go somewhere quickly then something bad might happen to them and they all knew it. Every last one of them. At least that was what everyone thought was happening even though they probably should of stayed calm.

    “What are we going to do?” Haruhi asked after a few moments of silence where no one did anything besides mutter to themselves.

    Everyone had to stay together and could not split up no matter what they did or what they found. No one would be leaving the group. This was one of the commands that Samira said could never be broken by the group. It was just a big no, no. Especially in a situation like this. Various life experiences told the majority of them that splitting up was a horrible idea.

    “Be on guard,” one mage instructed the other who nodded quickly. “If you see anything serious then you speak up.”

    All eyes turned towards Ping, a mage who had the tendency to lie about serious things just a little too much. Like the Little Boy who Cried Dragon. Dungeon-like appearance, the father they got into the train station, the creeper and more horror story like it got. Everyone was whispering little words of encouragement to each other as they continued on their way and kept each other going. Hopefully they wouldn’t be attacked by anything. Knowing how to defeat billions of monsters didn’t seem to matter at the moment due to the fact that they had no idea what they were fighting against!


	25. Chapter 25

 Khan stuck by his team for the most part and made sure that they stayed together and didn’t bicker in anyway. Good thing that they were mostly silent. They stayed in the middle of the group while being surrounded on all sides so all they needed to do was keep moving forward and they would be fine. If anything did attack the large group of mages, they were large enough to have just about every kind of magic that they knew of to fight against whatever it was that was causing problems. Or at least that is what they tried to tell themselves. No one dared to say anything that they couldn’t do because that would just make them panic even more than before which wouldn’t be useful at all in their situation.

    Tyra was a mere few steps behind Khan with Marvel right next to her. She didn’t seem interested in the other mages attempts at trying to get her to hold or care for him in any way as he continued to make himself panic even more. To be honest, she saw it as very annoying and cowardly of him to do such a thing. Behind them the other two marched along with everyone else as they silently made their way through the station. Nora had a death grip on her lover’s hand and would not let go for anything. She actually turned and hissed at a man who was trying to rush them and make them break apart so they could go faster than they were already going. Everyone else avoided doing something like that after that happened.

    Part of the station seemed to have more light than the other parts but as they went further into it, it really didn’t matter The lights were starting to go out and it was getting dark outside the train station. Which meant that they had been inside the place of horrors for a good two hours! Little did they know that once the sun went down, bad things started to happen in the train station.

    Being surrounded by different types of mages was a good thing then. Once the lights went out, a fire mage provided the group with light and that prompted the rest of the fire mages to do the same. When they came across a pathway cut off by an avalanche of rocks from a caved in ceiling, an earth mage took care of that. Whatever obstacle they faced there was someone who could help the entire group overcome it. 

    Right as they came to the middle of the station, the flames that the fire mages had provided went out. Samira swung around to yell at them but took a second so her eyes could adjust to the new found darkness. That couldn’t be right… No that was absolutely not right! They were missing some, if not half of the mages that they had before! She rubbed her eyes and looked again. Most of them were back yet a few of them were still missing! What was going on?! It wasn’t like they could leave or go back the way they came. Not alone at least. So where did they go? They probably would draw attention while trying to leave too. It was also all the fire mages that were missing. They wouldn’t all leave… Would they? 

    The smell of smoke was evident when they stepped through the hallway despite the fact that no one had been in the station for a long time. At least, no one besides the mages that they had arrived at the station with. Or it was the people who may or may not be living in the station! But if it was the others then what had they done to make the entire middle of the station smell like smoke and why?

    “Should we split up now?” Marvel asked slowly and peered of his teammates’ shoulder despite the fact that he knew the number one rule.

    “No! Do you know how dangerous that is?!” Samira glared at him as the entire group came to a halt.

    He shrunk back and away from the woman who seemed to be turning red with rage even in this dim light. But all he did was ask if they could split up! And completely ignore the golden rule that she had tried to drill into their brains. No splitting up. Sure, it would weaken the group but at some time it would take forever to look if they had to stay in this large, obnoxious group. To be honest, countless mages wanted to do this as quick as possible. Get in and get out. 

Plus with this big of a group, weren’t they more noticeable?

    “Samira… Split us up. But only into three groups so we are still a large enough group to defend ourselves against any threats that present themselves.” 

Of course, Tyra was the only one who could stand up to her and tell her what to do. At least suggest what to do that is. It was a whole other thing whether or not Samira listened to the suggestion.

“Quiet!” Khan interrupted before they could even think about arguing with each other. He raised his head and his ears twitched as he listened intently, trying to focus on where the sound was coming from. “I hear something.”

Just as he said that, everyone else could hear that something too. Footsteps and a faint sound of many voice though they sounded close together. Like they were all squished into one small space while they were all yelling. Something was off. The yelling sounded close but muffled like it was behind the wall or something...


	26. Chapter 26

   Pakku hadn’t always been the way that he was. Mean and cold, seemingly uncaring about what his family thought of him. That was what their parents told them when they were little and cried whenever he pushed them too hard or screamed at them during their training. Yue was quick to try and calm her children while they cried even harder when her father yelled at them even more for crying about the way he treated them and how they made so much noise when they were upset. After two hours of listening to the twins sobbing, she sent in her secret weapon that always made everything better. Kyru always made the children smile and laugh within seconds of him coming through the door. He was simply a good father to them!

    If the children did excellent with everything in their week from training to making their beds and cleaning their rooms every morning then they would get something special. To make it even more special they got to choose what they got for a treat and it was the same thing the majority of the time. For Simon and his family to come over and play with them for a day or two, if not more than that. The twins loved Simon! They got along great and when Simon was with, Pakku didn’t seem to hate his grandchildren as much because of the fact that the trio was always excited to show each other all the new moves they learned in training. Sometimes they even asked the elderly man to show them some more moves and ways to use their magic. 

    Kyru didn’t exactly enjoy the other family’s visit and drop bys to the house as much as the kids did for a few reasons. He loved Miwa, Simon’s mother, who was like a little sister to him since he could remember. They grew up together! Alongside Yue, of course, but him and Miwa were especially close due to their parents friendship. Miwa literally had Kyru change her diapers when she was a baby. Not to mention the fact that Yue got along with her so wonderfully well even when they were younger. No. It didn’t have anything to do with his childhood friend or her child. It had to do with the woman’s husband. Jet. Something about him just threw the other man off and made him hate him. Even if he was happy for his friend for getting married and having a family. 

    Maybe it was the way he spoke to Yue or how she would go silent and sullen if the man was too close to her for her liking. Not to mention the fact that he would get too close to her even if she asked him to stop or to move away from her. Like he was some kind of creep and didn’t know anything about consent.

    Jet was the reason why they taught the twins about consent and boundaries when they were very young even if other parents made fun of them for it. What was truly confusing about the whole thing though was that Simon never once showed any signs of having the same problems that his father seemed to have with consent. He never once showed signs of being a creep like Jet was. (Not even when the adults were not around! The kids swore on their mother’s famous chocolate chip cookies.) It was an entire different mystery on the fact that Miwa didn’t seem to notice how her husband acted. It just didn’t seem to make sense to the couple.

    “Mama!” The ten year old whined loudly and frowned as he stared up at the woman. “This shirt is itchy! And the bowtie is hurting my neck…”

    “Koda! Mama is doing my makeup,” his sister hissed, tight-lipped as she sent a glare in the direction of her brother.

Yue finished with the blush that made her daughter’s already rosy cheeks even more noticeable and grabbed the lipgloss. That was all the makeup that the little girl was going to be allowed to wear. Even though it was just two little things, Samira greedily took the chance to finally wear makeup!

“Come here,” Kyru chuckled as he turned the boy around to face him. The way he said it was the food in his mouth made it sound like he said ‘comere’ instead of ‘come here.’

    A pair of dark, steel blue eyes met a pair of storm grey ones as the father and son had a short-lived staring contest. All while the older male worked on tying his son’s bowtie so they could be ready to get to this event on time. Sure, the party may be for Jet’s sister but she was nice. The kids adored her too. Especially Samira who enjoyed babbling on and on about how pretty she was and how, when she grows up, she wants to be just like Jet’s sister.

    “And after the party, Valentine is going to watch you while Papa and I go to the adult part of the party. Okay?”

Both children nodded obediently with their eyes sparkling even if Koda seemed to be the more excited of the two. Valentine was their babysitter who could shapeshift into any animal he wanted to! Sometimes he could even turn into a human or other sort of creature! The kids enjoyed him and adored when they had him as a babysitter. 

“Simon is coming to spend the night here!” The two children shouted in unison with excited expressions as they peered up at their parents.

The night went as planned for the first half of the party, the ‘kid’ part where all the parents were allowed to bring their kids so they could hang out for a bit. Samira had bullied Simon into dancing with her right after she had bullied her brother into asking a girl with curly-hair who had been glancing over at him for a good ten minutes before. Both twins spun around the dance floor nervously, though they were good at looking confident, as they were unsure if they were dancing the correct way. Not that it matter due to the fact that their dance partners probably had no idea how to properly dance either. So it didn’t matter if they had no idea what they were doing! All in all, they had a good time for the most part.

“I feel funny,” Koda whispered to Simon a few hours later and stared at the other boy for a second. “Something’s wrong.”

“Huh?” The younger of the two blinked slowly and stared at his friend for a few seconds. “Whadda mean?”

Koda merely shrugged at the question.

    “There’s a feeling in my tummy and I don’t like the feeling of it. Plus my head hurts too.”

    Both boys were whispering as they talked to one another, all wide eyes and frowns. If something really was wrong then they would be in trouble. Wouldn’t they? Simon wasn’t completely sure if he believed his friend or not. It was rare but oda did try to pull one over on him every so often just for the fun of it. Not this time!

    “Just tell Valentine that you’re sick,” Samira said as she watched the boy’s with an annoyed look. Though it truly looked like she just took a bite out of a lemon, her face all pinched up like that. 

    She also was a victim of her brother’s random and rare pranks. Which she did not enjoy one little bit. He was stupid for doing them! And she wished that she could somehow prove to their parents that he was horrible.

    “Once we get home.” Koda announced when he saw that they were approaching an ice cream shop.

    Valentine was one of those cool and hip babysitters that were not too young but also not too old. He was young man and very attractive to all genders not to mention funny, grown up, and talented. Like a spell to make the oldest twin fall in love even if she was ten years old and didn’t truly know what love was. That was something that her brother easily realized and quickly used to his advantage.

    “I’m telling Mama  _and_ Papa!” He said with a laugh once they had been put to bed. He ducked when a pillow came soaring at his face. 

It didn’t hit its target and instead it hit the person next to it. Simon let out a small whimper and rubbed the top of his head where it hit. 

    “I’ll tell them about Suki!”

     Suki was a little girl who was trained by a mage that somehow knew Pakku from back when their grandfather went on missions. The trio met her when her master came to visit their grandfather and just have a nice little day of catching up with an old friend. She was only about four years old and the trio was about eight. Koda became the center of her affection for the day that she was with them which led her to stand on her toes and kiss his cheek. Koda, in turn, and with no experience with girls, grabbed her face on kissed her on the lips.

He was scolded for that and put in a timeout for the rest of the day.

    Simon and Samira had a nice, good laugh at the memory that had been brought back up of that day and how freaked out the other twin was. Koda whined and threw the pillow, that once had been directed at him, back at his older sister to try and get her to stop laughing.  Little did they know that soon the night would go up in flames.


End file.
